


Atlas Prompt Drabbles

by CaptEdKenway



Category: Advanced Warfare - Fandom, Call of Duty
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, F/M, Humor, Hurt Gideon, Jokes, Kids, Knotting, Sex of course, Smart ass Mitchell, poor Mitchell, prompts
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-09-27
Packaged: 2018-04-11 23:34:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 22,946
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4456784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CaptEdKenway/pseuds/CaptEdKenway
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>He came towards me, deathly quiet. I held my ground as he did so and allowed him to nuzzle me. I could feel his breath on my neck, but when he tried to push up, I held my head still, denying him. I heard a low growl and he tried again, but again I resisted. I growled back but it ended in a bit of a whine while I backed away. He followed me, tail twitching. He tried to rest his muzzle on top of me, but again I moved away. His growls became louder, he was getting mad. I wanted what he wanted, but why couldn’t I give it to him? I whined again, moving closer to him, then back away again. I didn’t know what I wanted.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Full Moon

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so I'm on a bit of a werewolf kick, and wanted to do a CODAW/wolf AU with our favorite grumpy captain. :-)
> 
> I also had a prompt of "Sometimes you just have to submit" given to me and it seemed perfect for a wolf story. I'm going to add chapters as well with other prompts.

I walked in to the gun range, wanting to work a bit on using some of the latest weapons at Atlas. Picking up a rifle I checked the sight, loaded it and headed over to my lane. I passed Captain Gideon and chose a lane three over from him. He was working with a new rookie and was at his shoulder instructing him. As I passed he looked up briefly at me and nodded, then turned back. I set my targets up and activated my station, choosing a medium difficulty so that I could get a feel for my weapon. After running it for five minutes I upped the difficulty to the highest level and ran it again. I tried to ignore that part of me that wanted so badly to knock Ilona off the top of the leader board, telling myself it was childish. It was childish, but I still tried.

As I came up on the end of my sim I knew I was being watched, could feel it. I wasn’t about to turn to see and run the risk of wrecking my score though, I was so close to getting the top score. As my last set of targets began to pop up I fired at them, hitting them easily. As my final target came up I took aim, a split second before I released the trigger a breath on my neck and a whispered – “nice work” caused me to jerk and miss the target.

I slammed my rifle down on the counter with a loud “fuck!” before turning around. Gideon stood off with his student looking over at his scores. I knew it was him, he was the only one in here. I glared at him until he looked up at me and winked. It was everything I could do to not stride over to him and punch him square in his smug face. This wasn’t the first time he’d pulled something like this. But deciding not to fall for his antics I calmly picked my rifle back up and brought it back over to rack and walked out of the range, pointedly ignoring the leader board that showed me 5 points behind Ilona.

* * *

 

Later that night I had decided to head down to the track and run a few miles to work off dinner. The mess hall had served nothing but carbs and creamy dishes, and while I loved my carbs, they didn’t love me. So the track it was. It was a nice night, warm but with a cool-ish breeze. I stretched my legs for a few minutes off to the side while watching Jack Mitchell finish his laps. I was envious of his build, the guy could eat until the cows came home and not put on a pound. It must be a guy thing, I swore all the men here ate like it might be their last meal but didn’t gain an ounce of fat. Quite the opposite, everyone I’d seen seemed to be built like a tank. And I knew Jack ran just for the hell of it, he used it to reduce stress, not lose weight. It wasn’t fair.

Deciding I was limber enough I headed onto the track, returning Jack’s nodded ‘hello’ as he finished and headed off the track and presumably back to the men’s section of the gym. I started off at a leisurely pace, not interested in trying to break any records. As I loped around the track I couldn’t help but think about Gideon. He’d been pursuing me for some time, had made his desire clear. I wasn’t sure why I was resisting, it just didn’t seem right to just roll over immediately. But there was also no denying the pull between us. But something held me back, something that kept me from giving in, it just wasn’t in my nature.

However, I knew the full moon was almost upon us. The night sky would be lit up tomorrow, and parts of the compound would be crazy for certain members. I was feeling the pull of the moon, the pull of Gideon, but part of me fought it. I just wasn’t sure why.

I finished my last lap and walked for a minute to cool down before grabbing my towel off the grass and headed back to my quarters. I skipped the gym, preferring to shower in my own place. I walked down the pathway that lead from the track and knew immediately I was being watched again from the woods to the side of me. As I walked I turned my head towards the woods and caught just a quick flash of red. It made my heart pick up in speed. Not in fear though, but a warm, shivery feeling deep in my stomach. I could feel my fingers tingle and suppressed the feeling, I didn’t want to change right now. I began to walk faster and made it back to my quarters within a few minutes. I turned back behind me, but all was dark. Smiling I walked in to the barracks and headed towards my room.

The next morning was business as usual, if a bit tense. People were in bad moods, the men especially. It was expected though, so nothing was made of it. I felt on edge myself, feeling like I’d had three cans of energy drink for breakfast instead of my usual cereal with a banana. I sat at my table trying to focus on the intel in front of me when I heard a fight break out in the next room. I looked up and saw Joker and another man - Wilkes, I think his name was – begin to fight.

I got up and went in to the room to hopefully try and pacify them. “You motherfucker, I told you not to use that code and you didn’t listen and now look at the mess you’ve made!” Joker was yelling at the other man before reaching over and trying to smack him. Wilkes blocked the move and punched Joker in the chin while yelling back at him and the next thing I knew they were both entwined and struggling to get the upper hand. I yelled at them but before I could intervene Gideon strode in and barked at them.

“KNOCK IT THE FUCK OFF, BOTH OF YOU!” Gideon grabbed Joker by the back of his neck and pulled him back and Joker immediately went limp in his hold. Wilkes began to go for Joker again but met Gideon’s eyes and immediately stopped, lowering his gaze to the ground. “Wilkes get out of here, go down to the sim room and help Rankin out.” Wilkes got up, nodded at Gideon without making eye contact and left. One he was gone he let go of the hold he had around Joker’s neck. “Fix the mess here and get back to work. It’s only a few more hours to go mate.” Joker said “yes sir” as he got up and began to straighten his desk and sat down.

The situation back to normal I went back in to my own area to get back to work, the show was over. Gideon walked in though and came up behind me and slightly to my side. He leaned over and inhaled, pushing my neck with his forehead. I fought it, refusing to move before looking at him. I turned to glare at him as he stood back up.

“What do you want Captain?” I asked him, trying to calm my heart rate and keep a cool tone. Gideon just looked at me, a tinge of red around his irises. I didn’t like the look in his eyes and I felt the need to stand up. I did so, standing tall and facing him. I was only a couple of inches shorter than him. He smirked ever so slightly, his eyes going back to their usual deep blue as he looked into mine, then nodded at me and left.

I didn’t know what to make of it, my heart was racing as I sat back down. He’d almost looked like he was looking for something and found it when he’d stared me down. It was weird, and I felt jittery again. I needed this day to end.

By six o’clock it was dusk outside and my nerves were on high alert. Most of the personnel had left, it was becoming too hard to be cooped up in the common areas. Tempers were flaring and nerves were strung tight as the wait for the moon to rise continued. This would be my third full moon, but my first here at Atlas. I ran through the mess hall quickly, grabbing dinner and taking it back to my room to eat. I went inside and locked my door and ate while watching my little t.v. I was getting very anxious as the time grew later and finally at around seven I couldn’t take it anymore and I left for the track.

As I started down the pathway to the track I found myself veering off and into the woods. This, this is where I needed to go, not the track. I felt my body tingling and knew the moon was up high in the sky. I needed to run, to be free, it was almost instinctual. I could feel my skin start to itch, the bones begin to move. I let out a howl as I felt myself change over, clothes ripping away as my arms and legs shortened, claws and fangs extended. It only took a moment to complete the change and I shook my coat, reveling in the feel of my fur. I let out another howl and this time I heard responses to my call. I took off, running through the woods, the layer of dead and decomposing leaves feeling cool against my paws. God I loved this feeling. I ran aimlessly, not caring what direction I went. I knew deep down the compound was massive and I could run all night without ever leaving the safety of the Atlas borders.

I began to become aware of being followed again and I slowed to a stop, scenting the air. I knew who it was. I let out another howl, heard others far off in the distance, and one very close by. I turned towards the sound of the closer one, ruffling my black fur. I kept still as I watched him carefully advance on me. He was a beautiful grey wolf, with hints of roan in his undercoat. The eyes of an alpha, bright red, took me in as he began to circle me. I moved with him, not allowing him to have my back, but I knew what he wanted. I wanted it as well, deep down, but couldn’t seem to reconcile the need to not allow it.

He came towards me, deathly quiet. I held my ground as he did so and allowed him to nuzzle me. I could feel his breath on my neck, but when he tried to push up, I held my head still, denying him. I heard a low growl and he tried again, but again I resisted. I growled back but it ended in a bit of a whine while I backed away. He followed me, tail twitching. He tried to rest his muzzle on top of me, but again I moved away. His growls became louder, he was getting mad. I wanted what he wanted, but why couldn’t I give it to him? I whined again, moving closer to him, then back away again. I didn’t know what I wanted.

Suddenly he lunged at me, a mass of grey fur rushing me and I felt his teeth sink into my throat and hold me. I began to panic before I realized he wasn’t trying to hurt me, but he had me in my most vulnerable place and it was hard to stave off that panic. I began to growl back, then it would break into a whine before going back into a growl. He began to pull me down to the ground, he wanted my belly but I was fighting him. I bared my teeth and tried to break free but he just sank his a bit deeper, making me go still. I was still on all fours, but my head was pulled down at an odd angle. My heart was racing. As if sensing it, the alpha inhaled deeply and let his grip on my throat loosen slightly. He began to nuzzle my neck again and then let out a whine. I caught his eyes, staring at the deep red, and realized he wanted more than just a quick romp in the woods. I began to relax, and the more I relaxed the more he loosened his grip on me until I was finally free of his teeth. He began to lick my throat, soothing the puncture marks and letting loose little whines here and there. I felt myself lowering my head and butting up under his muzzle, then running the length of my body along his. I turned back and saw him changing back, paws and fur melting into legs and skin.

I allowed myself to change as well. For whatever reason, our little dance there had shown me exactly what he wanted from me, and I wanted it as well. Still crouching in the leaves Gideon scooted towards me, man once again but for the red eyes.

“I want you,” he said softly. “You’re mine.” He ran his hands up over my cheeks and inhaled my scent, and I did the same. His scent held a bit of spice, muskiness that most men seemed to have, and something else I couldn’t pinpoint, but it felt _right_. He began to rub his face against mine, marking me with his scent, the scent that would tell others I was off-limits from now on.

I wanted this, wanted this badly. It felt so right, like this was supposed to happen. But I couldn’t deny the fact I couldn’t submit to him. He was an alpha, I would have to. Gideon could sense my struggle, could feel my stiffness despite the scent of my arousal and my allowing him to scent mark me. He pulled his face back and leaned in, taking me in a deep, passionate kiss that had my toes curling. We were both on our knees, upright. His hands ran down my neck and over my shoulders, lightly running over my ribs to my hips. One hand splayed against my lower back as he brought the other one up the column of my throat, thumb rubbing gently over my artery. He let go of my lips and replaced his thumb with his lips, licking and sucking on the tender spot. I couldn’t help but moan at the feeling.

He pulled back and I looked into his eyes, blazing an even deeper red. He was breathing hard, fangs extended and I could tell he was trying to control himself.

“You are _mine_ ,” he rasped. He grabbed me quickly by the back of the neck and reached down and sank his fangs into my neck. I howled at the intrusion, I felt myself jumping from being seriously aroused to seriously pissed off. He was marking me without my permission, it was one thing to scent mark me, and quite another to mate mark me. I growled and pushed him off me and felt a strength overcome me as I pushed him to the ground on his back. Before he could react I sank my own fangs into his neck, giving him my own mark. He tried to fight me but I growled low in my throat without releasing him. I was straddling his chest and had his arms pinned to the ground with mine. I felt my fangs retract slightly and found myself instead sucking on the spot where I had punctured him. And as before and just as fast, I felt myself go from pissed off to turned on. Gideon was _mine_.

Gideon stared at me and smiled. “I knew it,” he said, just before he flipped us over, pinning me to the ground on my back. Before I could say anything his mouth was on mine, tongue slipping in to taste me. He sucked on my bottom lip, then down my jawline. I could feel him growing hard as a rock on top of me and felt myself grow wet. When he came back up I glared at him.

“You knew _what_ Gideon?” I snapped. I may want him and be horny as hell right now, but it didn’t change the fact that he’d marked me. He smiled at me, gazing into my eyes. “You, my dear, are my true mate. My _alpha_ mate, judging by your red eyes.”

My what? I didn’t have red eyes when I changed, I had an orange-brown like any other beta wolf. As if reading my mind Gideon nodded at me. “Yes, you were a beta, but not anymore. That’s why you’re fighting to submit. You’re fighting it because deep down you are an alpha.” He leaned down again and kissed me deeply. I felt myself return his kiss eagerly. An alpha? Me? My thoughts came to an abrupt halt when one of Gideon’s hands roamed down over my breast, gently squeezing it and rubbing his thumb over the nipple. I arched into it, relishing the feel. I began to give in to the feelings racing through me and embrace them whole-heartedly. I could feel an intense heat rushing through me and down to my core. Gideon began to kiss his way down, sucking a nipple into his mouth while running his hands down to my pussy. His fingers slid through my folds and I groaned out at the feeling. He slid his knee in between mine, spreading me open even more. He slid his finger inside, then added a second, pumping them in and out slowly.

He brought his head back up to mine, kissing me before pulling away. “Will you be mine? Will you be my alpha?” He asked quietly. I knew then that we were on equal footing, an alpha male would never have asked that of anyone other than an alpha mate. I reached up and grabbed his face and kissed him with everything I had before pulling away just enough to whisper “Yes”. Gideon removed his fingers and grabbed my legs, moving them up as he slid over on top of my. With one thrust he pushed himself inside of me while biting the same spot on my neck, claiming me for good. I returned the bite, marking him as mine again as well as he continued to thrust into me. His cock felt so good, sliding in and out of my heat. I could feel myself tighten up as my orgasm began to rise up out of me. Gideon picked up speed, pounding into me, grunting with the effort. “Shit, I’m not gonna last,” he said. I squeezed his ass, encouraging him to pump harder. I could feel his body tighten just as my orgasm let go, ripping through me. It was the most intense orgasm I’d ever had in my life. As mine hit Gideon’s broke free as well. He growled out as he thrust one last time into me and spilled his seed inside of me, and I could feel him begin to swell inside of me, knotting me. He managed a few weak thrusts, rubbing the large knot against my walls before he wiggled his arms under me and managed to roll both of us over onto our sides, still joined together.

We both were breathing heavily as we laid there, waiting for the knot to go down. I had my back to Gideon’s front, one leg on top of his. “God, that feels, that feels incredible,” I said. Gideon had an arm around my waist and he leaned over a bit and kissed my shoulder. “I’ve never done that before. The knot. Always hoped it would happen. Always hoped I’d find my mate,” he said quietly, almost afraid if he spoke too loud he’d ruin the moment.

“And to think I almost made sure it didn’t happen, just because I was insecure about allowing you to take me.” I rubbed his hands, thinking about that, and how now it seemed so stupid to have fought the feelings inside me.

Gideon nuzzled my neck and pulled me closer. “I guess sometimes you just have to submit. Both of us.”


	2. Joke's on You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This came from the prompt - "a practical joke goes wrong"

Mitchell heard his alarm go off and he grudgingly flopped an arm over to smack it and make it stop. He rolled over on to his back and let the same arm flop over his eyes. He really did not want to get up. He’d been up late last night trying to clear his tablet. Somehow every time he tried to open a file from the Atlas server pages of gay porn would open instead, volume full blast so that everyone in the vicinity could hear it. It was humiliating as hell. He had no idea why it was happening. It’d taken him until 3am this morning to finally clear it all. So the alarm going off at 7, which was late for him, was too early today.

Grunting he sat up and flung his legs over the side, leaned over and started rubbing his eyes. He heard a faint clacking sound and dropped his hands to see what it was. When he saw what was in his room he yelped, immediately jumping up on his bed and practically to the top of his dresser.

“JESUSFUCKINGCHRIST!!”

There was a huge mother-fucking tarantula in his room scurrying around his floor. To say Mitchell had a case of arachnophobia was a massive understatement. Hell he couldn’t even look at pictures, or deal with those stupid plastic spider rings that kids liked to wear.

He heard a rapping at his door and could hear Gideon on the other side yelling through his door.

“Mitchell, you ok mate? What’s going on?”

Mitchell was trying to catch his breath, trying not to look at the nasty thing on his floor, but also afraid to lose track of it in case it climbed up on to his bed and towards him. “Fucking hell Gideon, come get this thing out of my room!” Gideon turned the door knob and found the door was unlocked, so he stepped inside.

He saw Mitchell up on the bed, one foot on top of his dresser and a panicked look in his eyes. “What the hell is going on Mitchell?” All Mitchell could do was close his eyes and point in the direction of the tarantula. “Get.It.Out.Please.”

Gideon looked where Mitchell was pointing and raised his eyebrows. “Wow, where did that come from? Not often you see one inside the compound’s rooms.” Mitchell just looked at Gideon like he was nuts. “Get.It.The.Fuck.Out.Of.My.Room.”

Gideon laughed, “man you afraid of spiders? Aw he’s cute!” Gideon walked over and picked it up. He actually picked the nasty thing up in his hands. Mitchell shuddered at the sight and the thought of it touching him. Gideon started talking to it like it was some kind of pet and left the room. It took Mitchell a solid ten minutes before he could move, convinced as soon as his bare feet hit the floor another one would appear. Keeping his feet on the bed he dragged clothes out and quickly got dressed, deciding against anything else like showering, brushing teeth, etc., and literally jumped from his bed to the door and slammed it shut behind him.

Later that day while working on intel, Mitchell was pouring over reports that were coming in from a mission that Ilona and her team were working. It was relatively quiet, just him and about 5 other people working. Suddenly the P.A. system came online and a loud voice made an announcement.

_“Private Mitchell, please report to the Medical Unit for your prostrate exam, Private Mitchell, please report to the Medical Unit.”_

Mitchell looked up in confusion, and as the words sank in he felt his face go beet red with embarrassment. The other people in the room looked up at him, some giggling, some trying not to, but all looking awkward. Oh my god, he thought. What the hell? The Med Unit never made announcements like that. He dropped his face into his hands, completely mortified as the announcement repeated itself, you know, just in case some of the folks at Atlas hadn’t heard it the first time.

The porn, the spider, and now this, he was beginning to think someone was pranking him. Gideon came to his mind right away, based on the way he reacted to the spider, like it was funny. But he wasn’t sure. He was going to have to be on his toes to avoid any other pranks. Getting up from his desk he decided to head down to the range and away from potential pranks. As he walked down the hallways he was bombarded with people laughing when they saw him, claps on the back, bad puns being thrown at him, other folks telling him Medical was the other way, and one guy with a soda raised it in salute to him and said “Bottoms up!” as he passed by.

Mitchell tried to keep his cool and fake laughed with everyone, but he was relieved when he was finally clear of the building and outside. As he walked he saw Gideon driving a jeep past him and when he saw Gideon start laughing, rather than say hello to him Mitchell flipped him the bird and kept walking to the range.

He stepped inside and headed down to the range and nodded hello to Joker as he left. He selected the weapon he wanted, headed over to a lane and began to activate it. Pulling out a set of ear plugs from the box in the lane he put them in, raised his gun and began to shoot the hell out of everything it threw at him. When he was done, he popped out the ear plugs and as he threw them into the waste can he saw they were black. They were orange when he put them in, he thought. Then he noticed his fingers were black as well. Rubbing them together and bringing them to his nose he could smell ink.

“Son of a bitch,” he thought. He had a pretty good idea his ears were now black as well. This was too much. He put his rifle back on the rack and began to storm back to him room to clean up. So now he could parade through the hallways with black ears and hands, with people wondering how his prostrate exam had gone. He opted to enter the barracks through a side door, hoping it would be quieter than the main entrance. With any luck he could make it to his room with no one seeing him. As he moved quickly down the hallway he passed a room with the door slightly ajar. He was a few steps past it when the voices inside the room registered in his brain. Mitchell stopped and backed up quietly to the room, listening in. He could hear two people talking quietly and laughing as they apparently watched something.

“Haha, so now at this part, I swear Mitchell screamed like a girl when he finally saw it,” said the voice. Mitchell could then hear himself yelling when he had seen the spider in his room. He silently peered inside and saw two men hunkered over a computer screen watching what looked like a camera feed of Mitchell’s room. He saw himself on top of his bed, looking down at his floor. Mitchell was flabbergasted. So not only had someone snuck a spider into his room, but a camera feed as well to record it? Pulling back he listened for another moment as they laughed and the one person told the other about bribing someone to make the PA announcement.

Two could play at this, Mitchell thought, and he quickly turned and all but ran back to his room.

Mitchell entered his room, closed his door, and couldn’t help but stand there and search the floor. As he cautiously headed to his bathroom he kicked at piles of clothes on the floor and whatnot to see if anything squirted out. After checking to make sure his room and bathroom were free of anything with eight legs, he worked at getting the black ink off his hands and out of his ears. His mind was already scheming on payback to his prankster. After cleaning up and getting most of the ink off he headed down to the mess hall to grab some dinner. As he made his way in he saw the culprit sitting down at a table with a woman. Mitchell knew he’d been trying to get a date with said woman for some time, and suddenly his revenge took form. Deciding to skip the line he smirked before schooling his face into one of betrayal, and he headed over to the table.

Joker gave the blond his flirtiest smile and just as he was about to let loose with his best pick-up line, Mitchell appeared in front of him with a weird look on his face.

“You bitch!” Mitchell hissed at Joker in a falsetto voice. Before Joker could even react Mitchell continued.

“So this is the hussy you dumped me for?” Mitchell flung his hand at the woman, not even looking at her. “Oh my god, I can’t believe you’d be so low to cheat on me. And with a _woman_!”

Joker began to gasp and try to think of something to say. He tried to shush Mitchell as his voice got louder and people began to look. His date was wide eyed, not sure what to make of what was happening in front of her.

“Dude, Mitchell!” Joker sputtered, but Mitchell stood up straight, hand over his heart, a distressed look on his face. “Mitchell? Now I’m Mitchell to you? What happened to being your Jacky-Boy?” Mitchell let out a fake sob, hand over his mouth, pulling out all the stops. “No, no, no, that just won’t do.” Mitchell finally looked at the woman, who just sat there, mouth agape, head ping-ponging between the two men.

“Honey, you need to go, he’s mine. I don’t care how small his manhood, he’s my little man.” Joker was vaguely aware of the snickering and laughs coming from other folks in the mess hall who were watching the show at his table. Mitchell made shoo-ing motions to her until the woman got up and slowly left. Joker just hung his head, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. Once she was far enough away Mitchell sat down, grabbed Joker’s plate and began to eat.

“Payback’s a bitch eh Joker?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Everything I wrote about the spiders, that's me lol. I'm scared to death of them.


	3. Open The Pod Bay Doors Hal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Today's Prompt: The best meal I've ever had

“Stop being such a baby and open up.”

Mitchell sat there, a stern look on his face, a fork in one hand and the other holding on to a plate.

Gideon glared at him, his obstinacy at epic levels, even for him.

“Do I have to make choo-choo noises for godsakes?” Mitchell huffed. “Or better yet, how about I send the nurse in to do this. I believe the scary one is on shift right now, I’m sure she’d love to help do this.”

Gideon growled at his partner, his displeasure at this situation incredibly clear to Mitchell and everyone within this wing of the hospital.

“Fine, you fucking happy now mate?” He muttered as he opened his mouth, refusing to look at Mitchell. Mitchell shoved the fork into his mouth, depositing what he was told were green beans, but he wasn’t going to stake his life on it. Gideon chewed them with attitude before swallowing and grumbling about how disgusting they were.

“Christ, is any of that shit edible?” Gideon asked. Mitchell poked around the plate. “Well, you have green beans, apple sauce and I think this is a piece of turkey. What do you want next?”

Gideon closed his eyes and shrugged. “I don’t care mate, just pick something so I can finish before anyone sees me like this.” To say this sucked was a major understatement. Gideon hated being laid up in any normal circumstance, but to be this helpless was just too much. On what should have been a super-quick in-n-out mission, Gideon had gotten his ass royally beat down on by an AST. He’d been thrown around like a rag doll and stepped on before his team had managed to get him to safety. So here he was, two broken arms in traction, casted all the way to his shoulders. He had zero ability to use his arms which meant that someone had to do everything for him, like feed him his meals. It was beyond humiliating for him. Gideon would only allow Mitchell to do it, their being together made it an iota less humiliating, but not by much.

“OK, here comes the turkey, open up.”

Gideon sighed. “Oh my god Mitchell please don’t talk like a parent trying to feed their one year old or I swear to god I will puke it all back up on you.”

Mitchell just laughed. Deep down he was enjoying the fact he could torment Gideon like this. He would pay for it, dearly, later on, but for now he would take advantage. “Come on old man, open your mouth and chew.” Mitchell shoved the fork in and went back for more while Gideon chewed. He grabbed the napkin and wiped Gideon’s mouth for him when he saw bits of turkey stuck to his chin.

“I hate you Mitchell,” Gideon sighed. Mitchell just gave him a shit-eating grin before scooping up some applesauce with the spoon and making airplane noises as he “flew” the spoon over to Gideon’s mouth.

Gideon glared and opened his mouth. Mitchell was going to pay for this, or yes he was.

Mitchell scooped up more and repeated the process.

“Gid, I think this is the best meal I’ve ever had.” Scooping up more sauce he told Gideon, “open the hangar doors, coming in for a landing!”


	4. Morning Wood

No one had any explanations for how this happened, why it happened, or how to fix it. One second everything was fine, the next, well, the next everything well and truly sucked.

“There has got to be a way to fix this! I can’t stay like this forever Cormack!” Ilona yelled. She kept popping up out of the medical bed while doctors and nurses kept pushing her back down so that they could keep monitoring her vitals and whatever the hell else they were doing. She looked at Gideon, across from her in another bed. “Gideon, tell them they _have_ to fix this!”

Gideon just stared, he was still having a hard time wrapping his head around this. He was looking at himself, but it was Ilona’s voice coming out of him. Except it wasn’t her voice, it was his. His face that was contorted in bewilderment, his English brogue he was hearing, but it was her words.

He looked down at his hands – _her_ hands. Long slender fingers that he knew for a fact could take a man’s life with a simple twist. It was _her_ voice that came out of him when he spoke, her Russian tinted words. “Fuck me, I don’t know what the hell to make of this.”

Everyone was nervous, they had no idea how Gideon and Ilona had swapped bodies, only that after the factory had blown when Gideon and the team had placed the charges and he and Ilona took the brunt of the blast when they weren’t fast enough getting out, that when they came to they were different. Cormack just stood off to the side of the room, hand over his lips as if in thought, but in all honesty he was trying hard not to laugh as well as cover the fear that he had no idea how to fix this. He could only hope that the crack medical team could find a way.

The lead doctor finally came over. “Well, other than the obvious both Gideon and Ilona are physically fine. No injuries other than a slight burn on skin that was exposed to the blast. I’ll keep them overnight, but unless a medical issue turns up, there’s no reason to keep them. In the meantime we’ll keep working this until we find an answer or a solution.”

There was some distinct grumbling from the two patients, but at the moment there just wasn’t anything that could be done for them.

“OK Doctor, you let me know the instant you have anything useful. I have some of my men also working on intel on the corporation that owned the factory, I’m hoping we can find something on our end as well.” Walking over to his two soldiers, he placed a hand on each of their ankles. “Stay strong you two, we will figure this out. I know this isn’t easy.” Ilona muttered a “thank you sir” as Cormack walked out of the room.

The doctor turned back to his patients and tried to smile at them, as if to comfort them. “Try and rest, I’ll have food brought in for you and the tv remote is there on the table. If you need anything just press the button and someone will come in. I want to keep you on IV fluids for now, but you both have bathroom privileges, so you can just wheel the pole into the bathroom with you.”

Gideon looked over at himself, at Ilona, and snarked. “Wow, we have bathroom privileges! Elite soldiers but we get to take a piss all by ourselves.”

Ilona chuffed, trying not to laugh, but the truth was she felt the same way. The doctor however, didn’t think it was funny. “Well if you want I’ll have you both cathed and you can piss through a tube if you like.” And with that he turned and left.

Ilona did laugh then. “Gideon I think you hurt his feelings.” Gideon just shrugged. “I don’t fucking care. This just sucks. It freaks me out to look at you and see myself.”

Ilona just nodded at him in agreement. She kept looking at her hands, she’d never realized how strong Gideon’s hands looked. She reached under the sheets to scratch an itch on her leg. “Good grief Gideon you have really hairy legs. Ick.”

Gideon didn’t respond and Ilona looked over. “GIDEON! Get your damn hands off me!” Gideon’s head snapped up at her, hands firmly plastered against his boobs and let go like he’d been zapped by an energy bolt. Then he just smirked at her and shrugged. “Sorry. Couldn’t help myself. They feel weird.”

Ilona sighed back into her pillow. “Thank god I didn’t end up in Joker’s body. He’d be molesting me 24/7.”

“Who am I molesting? And why am I not aware of it?” Came a cheeky reply as the man in question entered the room, followed by Mitchell. Both were carrying trays of food. They set the food down on the small table between the beds and Joker sat down on the bed. He leaned over with a smug look and laid his arm across Ilona’s leg, squeezing it. “Do you need some loving Ilona?”

“Joker get the fuck off me before I kick your balls up into your throat,” Gideon growled, pulling Ilona’s legs up to his chest. Joker jumped up off the bed. “Gah! That is so freaking weird. I’ve already forgotten that’s actually you boss.”  Joker tried to look apologetic, but deep down everyone knew he was just looking for an excuse to cop a feel.

The four of them visited for an hour before they were kicked out by the nurse, saying visitor hours were over. Mitchell tweaked Ilona’s/Gideon’s toe and winked, telling her to hang in there. After the men left and had taken the empty food trays with them, Gideon and Ilona settled in. Gideon grabbed the remote to the tv and began to surf the channels, hoping to find something mind-numbing to watch. He finally settled on some cop show and the two of them watched in silence. When it was over Ilona was fidgeting. She pulled her blankets off and swung her legs over the side of the bed.

“I gotta pee,” she said quietly. Gideon just looked at her. “OK, so go.” Ilona nodded, almost looking like she was working up the courage to go. She finally huffed to herself, stood up and made sure to grab the back of her gown to prevent flashing Gideon with his own ass, then shuffled into the bathroom with the IV pole. Luckily the bathroom door was tall enough to allow her to drag the pole in with her and she closed the door. A couple of minutes later she came back out, red-faced and hustled back to her bed, quickly getting back in and pulling her sheet up to her chin.

Gideon watched the whole thing without saying a word, but raised an eyebrow at her. “You uh, ok there Ilona?” Gideon asked quietly.

She just nodded and said “uh huh” without looking at him. Shrugging it off Gideon went back to watching tv. Another minute later and Ilona quietly said, “Sorry, I tried not to look at it, and tried to only use two fingers to hold it. I promise I kept it totally professional.”

Gideon looked at her, not knowing what the hell she was talking about when it suddenly clicked. He couldn’t help it, he laughed out loud. “Haha, oh my god Ilona, I totally don’t care you touched my junk.” She just groaned and rolled over in bed, her back facing him and tried to go to sleep. Gideon kept laughing before going back to the tv.

The next morning Gideon awoke to what sounded like Ilona having a problem.

“Oh my god why won’t this go away.”

“Jesus Christ.” Some grumbling in Russian and Gideon cracked open his eyes to see her shifting around in her bed, then lifting the sheet up to look under it. He continued to watch her and noticed her face was red again.

“Ilona, what’s wrong?” Gideon asked quietly. Ilona startled, quickly looking at Gideon and her face going even redder. She pulled the sheet up to her chest which pulled it taut over her legs and that’s when Gideon saw exactly what the problem was.

He couldn’t help it but he felt his face go red as well.

“It’ll go away in a little bit. Sorry about that,” he said, almost embarrassed. “But if things don’t change you’ll have to get used to it.”

Ilona looked at Gideon again. “What, does this happen every morning?” She asked incredulously.

Gideon rolled on to his back and put his arms behind his head. “They call it ‘morning wood’ for a reason,” he chuckled.

Ilona sighed back into the bed and shifted again, trying to get comfortable. “This really sucks.” She grumbled.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prompt: The always popular "body swapping".
> 
> Do you have a prompt you want to see? Or a certain situation or specific pairings? Let me know!


	5. The Undead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This is for LouLou who asked for a zombie prompt. What more could I ask for but a Walking Dead/COD cross??

Gideon took a moment to let some thoughts run through his head. It all seemed so bizarre. Sentinel had fought against, and won, the Atlas Corporation and Jonathon Irons. Routed his elite military and destroyed his WMD. And the world celebrated and breathed a sigh of relief, thinking that the worst of what could be concocted by a mad man had been destroyed.

Yet here they were now, a new mad man, a new weapon of mass destruction. Astor Valker, a brilliant scientist with a genius IQ and slightly unhinged personality had created this latest atrocity in his lab at Astalayne International. In earlier years their main focus had been in medical research. They were responsible for developing some of the latest and greatest medical treatments of diseases, eradicating things like cancer, diabetes and heart disease. As the years passed and new leaders of various countries came and went, Astalayne found themselves focusing more on medical technology rather than treatments, and eventually the influence of some less-than democratic world leaders helped guide them into more weapon-related technology. The ability to blend their medical and weapon technology made them very popular to that world leader with enough money and enough corruption in their heart.

And so Sentinel found themselves fighting a new weapon, armies of undead who were tough to put down, didn’t have to be paid, were easy to create and even easier to control. Add to that the inability to get into close quarters combat without fear of being contaminated yourself changed how battles were being fought now. A country wanting to invade another could send in wave after wave of these undead soldiers, wiping out civilians and soldiers alike. If they scratched you, you died and turned and could be added to the existing army. If they wanted to they could just kill you and eat you, no need for the country to spend the money to feed them.

As a result weapons and uniforms had been redesigned to combat this new threat. Exo-suits were phased out for heavy full-body armour that could resist scratches and bites. Weapons and training were fine-tuned for accuracy and pin-point shooting. A single shot to the side of the head was the only way to put these things down. Tactical grenades were no longer as useful.

Gideon looked back down at his tablet as he scanned the reviews of the latest batch of new recruits. Mitchell and Ilona had spent the past month training, with Gideon over-seeing it all. Mitchell had developed a keen eye for picking out those recruits with the raw talent needed to not only survive in battle, but to grow into fierce soldiers. Ilona was the best at taking those green men and women and breaking them down and then building them up to be elite fighters. Gideon had developed two really tight squads thanks to Mitchell and Ilona. And if Gideon’s personal life with Mitchell had developed nicely as well, well, that was the icing on the cake.

After defeating Irons the two of them had finally worked up the nerve to admit to themselves and eventually each other that there was more than just friendship going on between them. After Gideon had pulled Mitchell off the balcony at Atlas and gotten him out of the building, he had cradled his broken body while they waited for exfil. It was then he knew how he felt, and he had held Mitchell close and begged him to stay strong and survive.

In the months following Joker and Ilona had caught on to the change in their relationship. They kept it pretty quiet, no public displays or anything, but Ilona and Joker were so close they noticed it. Surprisingly they both were incredibly supportive of it. Gideon still remembered having a beer with Joker one night when it came up. He had told Gideon that it seemed like a no brainer, Gideon and Mitchell had such a deep and tight bond, and for as long as Joker had known him Gideon had never had a friend as close as Mitchell, not even Joker himself. After the Atlas aftermath Joker, Ilona and Mitchell had received promotions to the rank of Lieutenant. Gideon had been offered a promotion to Major, but when told he would be pulled off his squad to do more of what Cormack did, he politely declined and asked to remain with his team. No one was surprised.

The next morning he called his team in to discuss their upcoming mission. As they filed in to the briefing room Gideon prepped the main screen and made sure he had all of his notes ready. It was just the four of them so it was by no means a formal briefing. That would come later when the entire squad was brought in.

“OK folks, here’s what we have on the latest intel. As you know a force of undead has been pushing in to the UK. They’ve taken London and the government is scrambling to regroup. If the latest is true they’re trying to establish a new government center up in Edinburgh, at least long enough to get a handle on the situation. They are prepared to move the prime minister to various locations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland in order to safe guard them. The royal family has been moved to the U.S. for protection. Ireland has offered to help as well, but for now they are trying to keep the PM within the UK for morale. “

Joker had leaned back in his chair with his legs crossed and his hands behind his head. “Local sources tell us that waves of undead are being shipped in from all sides – east, west and south coasts and working their way to the middle. Now that London is gone they’ll begin to work their way north. This is going to be a really tough fight.”

Everyone nodded in agreement and looked glum. “Germany, Russia and China are building their forces up and will send what they have ready right now, then follow up with more as they become available,” Ilona added. Gideon nodded at her. “Good, it’s something. Any word from Switzerland and Italy on progress on their end?”

Mitchell grimaced at that. “I was just in touch with the Italian’s lead scientist. Their latest round of experiments have failed to reverse what it is that causes this whole undead thing. But he said he hasn’t given up hope and feels they might make a break through soon.”

Gideon scratched his chin, not feeling too optimistic. The Italians especially, had been working hard at trying to develop an antidote to what was causing the undead. Sentinel had managed to capture quite a few of the undead and shipped them off to Milan to be studied.

Gideon continued the briefing, outlining when and where Sentinel forces would invade the UK along with their allied forces to try and push the armies back out. It seemed like a daunting task, but he tried to keep a positive outlook. When he was done briefing and everyone got up to leave Mitchell came over.

“You had anything to eat recently Gid?” Gideon shook his head, rubbing his eyes at the same time. “No, not since breakfast.” Mitchell grabbed him by the hand, pulling his up out of his seat. “Come on, let’s grab some dinner. I’m hungry.”

“You’re always hungry Mitchell,” Gideon joked. Mitchell just grinned and shrugged his shoulders, suddenly looking like a little boy.

They ate dinner in the mess hall and returned to their quarters. They were off the clock and Mitchell wanted to unwind. Mitchell went in to their bedroom and stripped off his Sentinel uniform and changed into a pair of flannel pj bottoms and a Texas Rangers t-shirt. He padded back out to the main room and found Gideon on the couch surfing through the channels on tv and an open beer in his hand.

“Hey Gid, go get changed, you’ll feel better.” Gideon smiled at him. “You gonna mother me mate?” Mitchell just nodded as he flopped onto the couch. “Yep, so you best get moving or I’ll just nag you until you do.” Gideon chuckled as he handed Mitchell his beer and got up to go change. Mitchell took a long pull on the ale and grabbed the remote and kept surfing.

When he came back out in his own p.j. bottoms and no shirt, he found Mitchell had finished his beer and had picked something to watch. Grumbling at him about the beer he went in to the kitchen for another one and popped the top, flinging the cap into the trash as he moved back to the couch.

Mitchell had stretched out, leaning up on the side cushions with his legs straight out. As Gideon came over he spread his legs open and Gideon slid in between them, leaning against Mitchell’s chest. And the two of them lay there, watching tv and sharing the beer. Mitchell had his arms around Gideon’s waist and Gideon had rolled himself so that he was using Mitchell like a body pillow. His head lay over Mitchell’s heart and he let the steady thumping relax him. When Mitchell started running his hand over Gideon’s head, threading his fingers through his hair, Gideon let out a long sigh of contentment.

“That feels good Jack,” he said quietly, closing his eyes and enjoying the attention. Mitchell leaned his head down to press a kiss to his forehead. When Gideon moved his face up Mitchell brought his other hand up to cup his face, pulling it up enough so that he could kiss him on the lips. Gideon scooched up Mitchell’s chest, putting himself above him and deepened the kiss while running his hand up his throat and jawline. Gideon broke the kiss but gazed into Mitchell’s deep blue eyes, rubbing his thumb over the man’s lower lip. “I have a bad feeling about this mission Jack,” Gideon whispered. Mitchell reached up and took Gideon’s hand from his face, turning the palm over and kissing it. He nuzzled Gideon’s palm and whispered back to him. “Yeah, I do too Gid.”

Gideon lowered his head so that the two were forehead to forehead. “Let’s make tonight count then eh?” He whispered, then kissed Mitchell again.

 

* * *

 

 

They were in the town of Carlise near the Scottish border and trying to keep the army of undead from moving north. The first wave of undead had infiltrated the area. Roaming bodies not in control of their masters, their purpose was to terrify the citizens by mindlessly tearing into anyone they caught as they moved through the area. They could scent you out or pinpoint your location through sound. Once they had created enough carnage and fear the second wave of undead would move in, under the control of their masters.

Gideon and his squad moved quietly up a street, weapons at the ready. Each man had a muffled rifle and at least three combat knives. Each member wore full head to toe body armour to protect themselves. But stealth was still important, that armour wouldn’t last if you were caught in a mass of undead.

Mitchell and Ilona had their own squads and were moving through streets as well. Russian forces were coming in from Dumfries, across the border, and moving south. The hope was to try and corral the undead and then take them all out. Gideon felt pretty secure in the ability of his squad. While he had some green recruits with him who were in combat for the first time, the rest of his team had fought this latest abomination before and knew what to do. He spotted a small number of undead around the corner and using hand signals indicated to his men to take positions and begin to pick them off. The street they were on was narrow and Gideon figured he could use it almost like a corral – get their attention so they moved in and he and his men could pick them off two by two.

As the men got into position, Gideon stepped into the open and clacked his rifle on the street, alerting the undead to his location. When they spotted Gideon and began to lumber towards him, Gideon began to walk backwards slowly, drawing them into the trap. “Rifles ready men, here they come.” And as the undead began to make their way around the corner and into the street, Gideon’s team took them out with silenced shots. All in all it took maybe 15 minutes. After checking to make sure all of them had been put down properly, Gideon nodded his head to his newest members, telling them they had done a good job. “OK boys, you got your first kills. Now you have it out of your system. Let’s go find some more.”

And so they continued, luring small groups into carefully positioned traps so that they could be easily taken down. Gideon checked in with Mitchell and Ilona periodically and had been updated on their progress. Gideon confirmed with both of them that they were hitting the center of town pretty much at the same time and Gideon knew this is where things would get tough. The city center was wide open, no narrow areas to lure small groups, so they would need to work smart.

Gideon opened his com unit to Mitchell and Ilona and told them to take the high ground. They would take out as many as they could from atop smaller buildings to avoid the mass of undead. Mitchell and Ilona relayed the orders to their squads and Gideon told his to get into position. Gideon climbed up to the roof of a grocer and could see three of his men on top of a pub. He saw Mitchell climb up and position himself on the roof of a store and line up his rifle. When everyone was ready Gideon gave them the green light to open fire. The rest of his and Mitchell’s as well as Ilona’s, were spread out over the city center.

The city center lit up in gunfire as all three squads opened fire on the bodies below them. Gideon took his time lining up his shots, making them count so that he didn’t waste ammo. He watched the bodies fall one by one. His clip empty he sat back to reload. A large helicopter could be heard in the distance and from the sound of it, it was headed their way. Gideon got on to his com unit.

“Kingpin are you sending in air support?”

“Negative Zero One, ground forces only.”

Shit. Gideon didn’t know what was going on. Maybe the Russians had caught up to them and it was one of their birds. “All Sentinel squads, heads up, we have an unknown chopper heading our way. It isn’t ours. Could be the Russians, could be a tango. Take cover if you can.”

Gideon could see Sentinel soldiers taking cover as best as they could. Two of his men were in the open though with nothing to act as cover, and he saw Mitchell was in the same position. They hugged the walls in a crouch to provide as small a target as possible. Gideon crouched down and aimed his rifle in the direction it sounded as if the chopper was coming from.

A large, sleek black combat helicopter came in just above the buildings. There were no markings on it, so that meant it wasn’t the Russians and therefor an enemy. Gideon yelled into the open com for everyone to get ready and open fire, then immediately requested an emergency exfil from Kingpin. The chopper flew in above the city center and hovered and just as Gideon gave the order to open fire the chopper let loose with a volley of its own. Machine guns fired at the building tops, trying to take out the Sentinel soldiers. Gideon saw his two men fall, they hadn’t had much of a chance without cover. Rounds ricocheted around Gideon as he squeezed himself into the space between the wall and an HVAC unit. The chopper continued to fire and Gideon saw Mitchell take a running leap to the building across the street, presumably to try and use the HVAC unit on it as cover. As he landed and rolled the chopper turned on him, firing. Gideon watched in horror as several rounds struck Mitchell and propelled him off the side of the building.

Seeing that the chopper was turning away from him Gideon squeezed out of his hiding spot and ran to the edge of the building and began to climb down. Hitting the street he ran towards where it looked like Mitchell had fallen. There were a few undead in front of him but he didn’t hesitate as he cut them down. He ran until his legs were burning and flew around the corner where he thought Mitchell was.

His breath nearly left him at the sight. Mitchell was up, but his helmet had been knocked off, and he was trying to fight off several undead. From the way he was moving it looked he might have broken an arm, as it was hanging uselessly at his side while the other was swinging the rifle. Mitchell was trying to use it as a melee weapon since he couldn’t raise it and shoot with one arm.

Gideon slung his rifle on to his back and grabbed his side arm and a combat knife and ran in to the fight. He fought on instinct, not even really aware of what was happening, only that he was killing as many of these abominations as possible in order to protect the man he loved. He could see Mitchell fighting, he had dropped his rifle in favor of his knife and was systematically taking down bodies. It seemed like hours but was probably only ten minutes or so when the last one finally fell. Gideon sank to his knees as he saw Mitchell fall back against a wall and slide down, breathing heavily. After catching his breath he crawled over to Mitchell.

“Jack, you ok? Fuck me that was close.” Mitchell didn’t respond, just dropped his knife. Gideon began to check his front side for injuries or bullet wounds. “I saw you go down, where did you get hit? Your armour should’ve protected you.” Again Mitchell didn’t respond but Gideon saw his shoulders start shaking. Gideon looked at him, realizing something was wrong. “Jack? Mate you with me? Are you hurt?” Gideon put his hand behind Mitchell’s head to pull him forward and he immediately felt the warmth of blood. He quickly pulled Mitchell forward even more to inspect his wound and when his eyes saw the injury his breath left him and he went cold.

“Oh my god. No. Nononono, this isn’t what I think it is. FUCK!” Gideon began to hyperventilate. Mitchell looked up at him sadly, the grabbed Gideon by the front. “Gid, don’t, its ok. I…” Mitchell just shrugged. What could he say? He was dead. Gideon grabbed him again pulling him forward to re-look at the wound. “Jack, maybe, maybe it’s a scratch from when you came off that building, and you’ll be ok, right?”

Mitchell shoved at Gideon. “Gid it’s not, I was bit. Goddamn it, I don’t want to go out this way.” Gideon’s head was swimming in shock. He got onto his com and yelled for the exfil, that he had a man down and asking where the hell they were. Then he cupped Mitchell’s face in his hands, ignoring the tears that were flowing down Gideon’s cheeks. “Mitchell, you’re fine, you’ll be ok, we’ll fix this. You can’t die, not now. I won’t allow it god dammit.” He cradled Mitchell in his arms and rocked, waiting for their exfil and trying to convince himself this was all a horrible nightmare.

* * *

 

 

An hour later Mitchell was hooked up to various machines in a medical unit Sentinel had set up in Glasgow. Ilona and the surviving members of their squads were outside the doors, pacing and waiting for word on Mitchell. Inside, Gideon sat next to Mitchell’s bed, cradling him as best as he could. Mitchell was on his side and tucked into Gideon’s chest. Gideon had one arm under his head, running his fingers through his hair and the other one wrapped around his upper shoulders, hugging him as tight as he could.

“Gideon, it hurts. It hurts so bad,” he whispered. Gideon had given up on trying to hold the tears back. “I know Jack, I’m so sorry.” He wiped his eyes and caressed Mitchell’s cheek. Mitchell was getting hot from the fever and he knew he didn’t have much longer. Gideon was trying to keep it together for him, but he was struggling. He could feel his heart breaking into a million pieces and he wasn’t sure he would recover from this. He kissed Mitchell and nuzzled his forehead. “I’m here for you babe, I won’t leave you.”

Mitchell grunted then let out a groan. A second later he began to shiver uncontrollably. “Gideon, oh god, it hurts, make it stop please,” he begged. Gideon held him tighter when it felt like the shivers were morphing into more of a seizure. Gideon barely registered the machines beeping furiously, but no doctors came in. The seizure slowed and then stopped. Gideon leaned down again and placed another kiss on Mitchell’s lips. “I’ve got you Jack. I love you, please stay with me.” Mitchell let out a long shuddery breath, but didn’t respond. Gideon looked at him, at his closed eyes. He shook him gently. “Jack?” He shook him harder. “Jack?! Jack! Jack wake up mate, please.” Gideon looked up and registered the sound of the flat line. “No, no. No I’m not ready! You can’t leave me goddammit!”

Gideon let out an awful keening sound and began to sob, pulling Mitchell’s limp body up to him. He stayed that way until the doctors came in quietly, turning off the machines and unhooking them. Then one of them put a hand to Gideon’s shoulder. “Sir, I’m sorry, but we need to take care of the Lieutenant, before he turns.”

Gideon snapped his head up, red eyed, face wet. “Like fuck you will. Get away from him. Don’t you fucking touch him!” He yelled. The doctors stepped back, but didn’t leave. “Captain, we can’t let him turn, you know that. He wouldn’t want to turn I’m sure.”

That seemed to throw Gideon over the edge. He stood up and pulled his side arm and aimed at the doctor in front of him. The doctor immediately stepped back and put his hands up. A nurse quickly ran out of the room.

“Don’t you fucking tell me what he would want you son of a bitch. _I_ am his partner. _I_ am his friend.”

The doctor nodded quickly, agreeing with Gideon. He saw the feral look in the man’s eyes and knew this could go badly very quickly. “I’m sorry Captain, you’re right. I can’t imagine what this must be like for you. I didn’t mean any offense. Please, just put your side arm down. You can stay with him, just let us restrain him so that he doesn’t hurt you by accident.”

As Gideon lowered his weapon he was suddenly hit from behind and tackled to the floor by a Sentinel MP and quickly injected with a sedative. The last thing he remembered as his vision faded to black were the doctors moving to Mitchell’s bed.

As Gideon was removed from the room unconscious, the nurses came in and began to unhook Mitchell from the machines. A doctor walked in with a side arm, prepared to put the Lieutenant down. As he raised the gun to the side of the man’s head someone knocked on the window of the room. The doctor looked up to see another doctor on his com and mouthing the word “wait” to him.

* * *

 

 

Ilona sat in the room by herself, watching the monitor and periodically wiping tears away. On the screen she watched the man in the secured medical room weakly fight his restraints. His milky eyes were no longer the bright blue they used to be, and always with a bit of a twinkle in them. Especially when it came to his Captain. Now they were lifeless, the man who used to be Jack Mitchell was gone. In his place was a walking corpse. Grey skin, milky eyes, strange grunting sounds coming from his mouth.

Ilona wasn’t sure why she watched. It was heart wrenching to see the kid who had become a man and an elite soldier be kept alive, if you could call it that, like this. But a part of her felt like she had to do this, not only for Mitchell, but for Gideon. She would hold this vigil so that Mitchell wasn’t alone. They hadn’t told Gideon that the doctors were keeping Mitchell, that they hadn’t put him down and had allowed him to turn. At the last second, after he had passed, they got a call from the Italians on a possible retro-virus. They would use Mitchell as the guinea pig. If it worked, then Mitchell could be brought back. If not, then Mitchell would be put down and buried in the spot where Gideon believed he’d been buried two days ago. Ilona was the only one of their team to know about all of this. Keeping this lie was the hardest thing she had ever done. But there was no way she could let Gideon in on it. It would kill him to see the man he loved like this, and Ilona wouldn’t allow Gideon’s memories to be tainted by the sight of Mitchell as an undead. She also refused to raise his hopes that it would work, as the odds were not in their favor.

Gideon had been temporarily relieved of duty. He was emotionally unfit to run his teams and Ilona was placed in his role. When Gideon had enough time to recover from this loss and if he wanted his teams back, Ilona would gladly step aside and relinquish the command to him. In the meantime, Joker took a leave in order to stay with Gideon and keep an eye on him, although unbeknownst to Gideon. As far as he was concerned Joker was just taking some time off. Gideon had begun drinking pretty heavily and both Joker and Ilona were worried. When he wasn’t in his quarters drinking himself to sleep he was at Mitchell’s grave site or at a bar looking to pick a fight.

Things had come to a head when one night two weeks later when Joker and Ilona had been called in to head to a bar in town to retrieve Gideon. He’d become involved in a bar fight that had left several people bloodied, including Gideon. Ilona began to worry that Sentinel would relieve Gideon of duty completely, and as Joker got him out of the bar and into the jeep she went back in to see if she could smooth things over and prevent charges being filed. After explaining things to the bar owner and the other person Gideon had fought with as well as providing payment to cover damages, Ilona left and got into the jeep. Gideon was asleep in the back seat already.

She looked at Joker and he sighed heavily. “He’s going downhill faster than we can catch him Ilona. I’ve never, in all the years I’ve known him, seen him like this. I honestly have no idea what to do for him.” Ilona looked out of the windshield, rubbing her neck. “I’m scared Joker. If he doesn’t kill himself first he’s either going to end up in prison or at the very least relieved of duty completely, and if that happens, he _will_ find a way to kill himself. It’s all he knows.” Joker nodded in agreement. “Come on, let’s get him home.” Ilona started up the jeep and pulled out of the parking lot and headed back to base.

They walked Gideon in to his room and when Joker told her he would stay with him, Ilona walked sadly back to her own quarters. Joker got Gideon in to bed and then planted himself on the couch, ready to spend the night watching over his friend. He tried not to see the photos in the living area of Gideon and Mitchell, it was too hard to see photos of his friend. Trying to keep his own tears at bay, he grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and turned on the tv, settling himself in.

The next morning Gideon found himself waking up to the sounds of Joker yelling at him to get up and get moving.

“What the fuck Joker, why are you in my room and what the hell do you want?”

Joker leaned over and pulled the covers off of his captain. “Get up Gideon, you’re already dressed but you stink of stale beer and blood. Go brush your teeth and wash up and get moving. You’re working out with me in the gym.”

Gideon kicked at him and grabbed the covers back. “Fuck off Joker, I mean it. I’m in no mood for this bullshit.”

Joker turned around and pinned him with a glare. “Get your fucking ass out of bed Gideon, _now_ , or I swear to god I will drag your sorry ass out of here.” Joker was fully prepared to knock Gideon out long enough to get him down to the gym. Gideon got up and got into Joker’s face, trying to intimidate him, but Joker didn’t back down. “You will be in that gym whether it’s on your terms or mine, but one way or the other you will be there. What’s it gonna be boss?”

Gideon pushed him hard in the chest, making Joker fall backwards several steps, but then moved in to the bathroom. A few minutes later he came out looking a bit cleaner. “What’s the emergency that I have to go the gym?” He snarled. “I’ve been relieved of duty, who cares if I’m still working out.”

Joker just wrapped his arm around Gideon’s shoulders and steered him towards the door. “We’re not working out to be fit, we’re working out for a different reason.” Neither one said another word until they got to the gym and Joker went over to the racks of sparring equipment. He picked up a pair of gloves and a head protector and threw them to Gideon before pulling out a set for himself. “Suit up boss.” Gideon’s shoulders slumped and all of a sudden he was a mixture of sad and resigned. He didn’t know what Joker was up to but at this point he really didn’t care. He just wanted to go back to his room and be alone.

Joker on the other hand knew exactly what he was doing. Gideon was a powder keg of emotions and he needed an outlet that wouldn’t get him arrested for assault and battery. He pushed Gideon to climb over the ropes and into the ring and then followed him. Joker began to move around, stretching out his arms and limbering up. Gideon just stood there, not wanting to be there. Joker moved up to him and looked at him. “Come on Gideon, let’s spar for a bit and work up a sweat.” Gideon just glared at him. “I don’t want to, I want to be left…”

Before he could finish Joker had moved in and sucker punched Gideon, knocking him to his knee. Wiping his nose he stood up and fixed Joker with a look that should have left Joker a puddle of piss. “What the hell Joker?! You fucking ass!” Joker bounced on the balls of his feet. “What are you gonna do about it Captain? Stand there and cry about it like a girl, or hit me back?” And that’s all it took to goad Gideon into moving. He ran up to Joker and swung, but Joker blocked his shot and smacked him in the ribs. When Gideon threw another sloppy swing at him Joker let it make contact with him rather than blocking it. They spent the next 30 minutes sparring and Joker found himself having a harder time dodging Gideon’s shots as he worked out his anger and became more structured and controlled in his hits. Joker had noticed Ilona come in 10 minutes earlier to watch but didn’t acknowledge her in fear of setting Gideon off on having an audience. But out of the corner of his eye he saw her activate her com as someone contacted her and a few seconds later she stood up, pale as a ghost and began to sway and then suddenly hit the floor onto her butt, hand over her mouth as she continued to listen to whoever had contacted her. He was about to call out to her when Gideon swung with everything he had and clocked Joker in the cheek, just below the eye and Joker went flying backwards and landed hard on his back.

Gideon was breathing and sweating hard, he’d taken great enjoyment in that last swing and felt a perverse pleasure in seeing Joker hit the ground hard. When Joker groaned Gideon walked over and offered him a hand up. “Fuck Gideon I think you knocked all my teeth out,” he whimpered as he let Gideon help him up. “That’s what you get for dragging me out here. Are we done, can I go home now?”

Joker looked around for Ilona but she had left. He was concerned about what had caused that reaction. Whatever it was must have been bad news, he’d never seen Ilona so shaken before. He looked over to Gideon to tell him they were done, but he was always taking his gear off and climbing out of the ring. Joker followed him and put his equipment away. “Do you feel any better boss?” Joker asked cautiously.

Gideon turned to him and sighed. “Is that what this was? A pity thing for me? Lost his best friend and lover so he needs cheering up?” Gideon threw his gloves into the basket, not caring when one bounced back up and out and hit the floor. Ignoring the glove Joker moved in front of Gideon and put a hand to his chest, knowing full well he was risking the loss of said hand.

“No boss. You should know me better than that. I’ve never pitied you. What this was, was my concern for my best friend as I watched him mourn my other best friend, and try to come to terms with his death, and not being able to handle it and drinking too much and starting fights,” Joker began to choke up, “and I’m having a hell of a time with losing Mitchell, and I’m watching you self-destruct and I’m wondering how I will be able to deal with it if I lose you as well. Man I’ve known you for over ten years!” And at this point Joker let the tears flow even though he hastily wiped them away and turned away from Gideon. Taking a minute to compose himself he turned back to Gideon who just stood there, head down and eyes red and wet.

“Joker, I don’t know what to do. I’m…it’s like I’m broken. It hurts to breath sometimes. Fuck, it just hurts to live. I don’t want to be here anymore. I don’t know how to keep going. I just want to be numb mate.” Joker moved up to Gideon and grabbed him in a bear hug and held on to his friend as tightly as he could, and Gideon let himself cry, and if Joker joined him, well neither would ever tell. After a couple of minutes and some manly wiping of tears Gideon stood back a bit. He rubbed his hands through his hair and said, “I need a drink.” Joker shook his head and wrapped his arm around his shoulders again, pulling him out of the gym. “I think we should have a Coke instead, ok boss?”

As they made their way out of the gym and headed down the walkway to get a drink Joker’s com beeped and he activated it.

“Joker, its Ilona. Are you still with Gideon?” When he replied that he was, Ilona told him to meet her with Gideon quickly.

After disconnecting from Ilona Joker told Gideon that Ilona wanted to see them both in the medical unit. “What’s going on, is she ok?” Gideon asked. Joker shook his head, then thought back to how she looked in the gym. “I don’t know. She stopped in while we were sparring to watch. Just before you knocked me to the ground I saw her take a call that had her looking really, really shaken. I’m guessing something’s wrong just based on that.”

They both hurried down to medical and when they stepped through the doors the inner doors opened and Ilona came flying out and ran to Gideon and wrapping him into a hug. It took Gideon a second to realize she was crying and so he pushed her back to see her face. “Ilona? Ilona what’s wrong? Are you ok?” He asked, scared to see the strongest woman he’d ever fought with so upset. Joker was holding her hand, looking worried. “What’s going on Ilona? What happened in the gym, is there something wrong?” He asked.

Ilona finally stopped crying and was able to get a breath of air in as she wiped her face with her sleeve.

“Oh my god you guys. I don’t know what to say. I…I…shit just come with me, please. I’ll explain everything in a minute. But you need to come with me and see.” She grabbed both of their hands and pulled them through the inner doors and down a hallway into a dark room. There were monitors on the desks and it looked like they were monitoring patients or something. Gideon didn’t know why they were there.

“Gideon, I’m the only one who knew about all of this, I’m, shit you’ll probably kill me slowly, but they had their reasons for not telling you and…” Gideon grabbed her by the shoulders. “Spit it out Ilona, what the fuck is going on?”

The tears started again and she brought her hands to her face before taking their hands again. “Come here and look at this monitor here. They created a retro-virus, and it worked.”

Gideon moved up to the monitor and he slowly began to realize what he was looking at. He began to feel lightheaded and woozy.

“Wha..what is this? Is this a joke or something? Why would you do this to me Ilona?” He asked in a wail. Ilona just shook her head. “No Gideon, it’s real. It worked, they brought him back.”

Still feeling woozy he sat down in front of the monitor and just started at the screen. At the man in the bed with the curly brown hair and the bright blue eyes, hooked up to machines and tubes and who was breathing, _alive_. He vaguely heard Joker behind him say ‘oh my god’ and stumble down to the floor in shock.

“He’s, he’s alive?” Ilona had moved next to Gideon and had pulled Joker with her so that all three of them could see the monitor. She was still crying and she nodded her head. “Yes, he’s alive and stable. Parts of his long term and short term memory are gone from what they’ve discovered, but his vitals are getting stronger every day. They felt that today they could guarantee survival and told me to inform you.”

Ilona continued to explain how the retro-virus had worked with nanotech but Gideon wasn’t really listening. He couldn’t take his eyes off of the screen and the man in bed. Periodically Mitchell would open his eyes for a few seconds, and those piercing blue eyes would make Gideon’s breath catch. He suddenly grabbed Ilona and Joker into a hug and held on as all three broke down in happiness.

It was two very agonizing days until they finally let Gideon in to see Mitchell. They wanted Mitchell’s vitals to stabilize more before allowing him in, but at that point they felt nothing would keep the Captain from getting into that room. Gideon spent the entire two days in the monitoring room just watching the screen, afraid to leave in case he came back to find it had all been one big sick joke.

They made him dress in scrubs and wear a stupid little scrub hat before they let him in, but he would’ve worn whatever they asked him to. He quietly opened the door and poked his head in, and seeing Mitchell made his heart break all over again. Mitchell appeared to be asleep, so he closed the door carefully and then made his way over to the bedside chair and sat. His eyes immediately watered up and he reached out to caress Mitchell’s cheek. At the touch Mitchell opened his eyes part way and turned his head towards Gideon.

“Gideon? Is that you?” Mitchell rasped. Gideon brought his hands to his face, then back to Mitchell before letting out a soft sob. “Oh my god, you really are alive.” And he leaned over and hugged Mitchell as best as he could and kissed him on the forehead before pulling back slightly. “Yeah mate, it’s me. I’m here for you.” He wiped his face but the tears wouldn’t stop falling. “I’m here Jack.”

“Why are you crying Gid, what happened?” Gideon let out a choked laugh. “It’s ok Jack, I’m just happy as hell right now. I can’t believe I got you back.” Mitchell looked like he was trying to remember why he was in the hospital. “I died. Didn’t I. I remember now. It hurt, hurt so bad.” Mitchell closed his eyes as bits and pieces began to materialize in his memory, but it was pretty disjointed. He felt like he didn’t want to remember, so he opened his eyes again and looked at Gideon. “I want to go home Gideon.”

Gideon smiled at him and ran his fingers over Mitchell’s cheek. “Soon love, soon. But I’m not leaving this chair until then. You have to keep getting better for a little bit.” Mitchell smiled and said ok, and weakly brought up a hand to put over Gideon’s. “I’m so tired for some reason.” Gideon brushed Mitchell’s bangs to the side and kissed him. “It’s ok Jack, go to sleep and I will be here when you wake up. I promise.”

Mitchell closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep, his hand still clutched over Gideon’s. Gideon laid his head down next to him as best as he could and just listened to Mitchell breath evenly, while he thanked every god he could think of for his second chance.

 


	6. Fucking Elliot Shepherd

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is for Ricardo_Salazar_1998 who requested the prompt of Gideon gets jealous when someone hits on Mitchell.
> 
> I would love more prompts! :-)

Gideon walked in to his room and immediately began to undress down to his undershirt and boxers, tossing his Atlas issued sidearm, gun belt and accessories on to his table, then tossing the clothes and his boots towards the couch, not caring when they missed and fell in to a heap on the floor. He padded into his kitchenette and pulled out a bottle of cold water and the leftovers from the night before. While waiting for the food to warm up he leaned against the counter and rubbed his eyes wearily. Damn he was tired.

When the unit dinged he took his food and water and went over to the couch and flopped down, setting the plate and bottle on his table. He grabbed the t.v. remote and began to channel surf, hoping to find something inane on to take his mind off the day. After scrolling through the channels he finally stopped on some show about ancient astronauts or some such thing.

To say today sucked was an understatement.

It had started off just like any other ordinary day, but somewhere, somehow, it had all gone to hell as far as he was concerned. He was really beginning to question his sanity for staying with Atlas and doing what he was doing. Granted it was the only thing he knew, had been with Atlas longer than he’d not been with them, but he felt like he was spinning his tires in the mud. He’d begun to feel this way ever since the latest group of new recruits had been brought in for training.

_And fucking Elliot Shepherd._

God he wanted to peel _fucking Elliot Shepherd’s_ face off with a dull knife. Gideon had always prided himself on his level-headedness, his ability to not be goaded in to reacting to situations until he was damn good and ready, and to always project that hard, tough demeanor that had gotten him far in life and in Atlas. And with the entrance of one man, Gideon had felt himself reverting to feelings of insecurity he had believed he’d long since buried in the past. Gideon wasn’t quite sure at what point he’d allowed this piece of shit recruit to have that kind of power over him, but he’d only been here a week and Gideon was already wishing he could make sure the man conveniently found himself in the line of fire. Without a gun. And a big fucking, glowing neon target on his chest.

The newest group of recruits had arrived on Saturday and had been orientated in to the Atlas life. Most were quiet, taking their time to study the new compound and their new leaders and comrades. Gideon knew which ones would begin to shine quickly and which ones would drop out soon. He could tell just by how they took in their new surroundings, eyes tracking and soaking in every detail. And then there was Elliot Shepherd. He strode in like he was God’s gift to the military world, chest puffed out and blond hair quaffed just right. Fucking dimples in his cheeks. He affected an air of boredom, like he was above all of this and was just waiting to be fast tracked to the top of the rank chain, where he obviously felt he belonged. The man didn’t walk, he fucking _strutted_.

Gideon got a bad vibe the second he jumped out of the truck carrying in the recruits from outside. He had sighed when he realized just how much more work and irritation this guy was going to cause Gideon when Gideon began to chip away the superior attitude. He’d dealt with idiots before and he figured he’d break this wanker by the end of the week and either send him running home to his mama or have him broken down and remolded into Atlas material.

And then Wednesday happened. And Gideon felt his irritation for this jackass rise up another notch. Gideon had dismissed the group for a lunch break and they all trudged over to the mess hall. Gideon walked in and before he could get in line Joker spotted him and ran over, wanting to discuss an upcoming simulation. When Joker was finally done discussing the tactics he wanted to use and had left Gideon moved to get in line when he spotted Mitchell. Jack had already gotten his lunch and was at the end of the line grabbing a fork and some napkins. Shepherd was standing next to him talking. His chest was puffed out and he looked like a fucking preening peacock. Gideon couldn’t help but watch as the two of them talked, and then the ass smiled and winked at Mitchell before patting his arm and heading out. Gideon felt his hatred for Shepherd crank up another notch. Before he could do anything he felt himself being arm-checked and turned to see Ilona stepping up to him and in the line for food.

“Hey Gid, you’re holding up the line big guy.”

Gideon muttered an apology and with a last look towards Mitchell, who was heading over to a table, he grabbed a tray and moved along to get his lunch. After grabbing a fork he headed over to where Mitchell was seated and plopped down next to him. As he began to eat he mumbled to Mitchell over a mouth of food.

“What did that fucker want,” he said, not even really making it a question. Mitchell took a bite and after swallowing replied, “Who, Shepherd? He was telling me about a mission he was on before coming here.” Gideon just snorted which earned him a raised eyebrow from Mitchell. “Sounded pretty interesting actually.” Gideon just shoved more food in to his mouth. “Hmmpf, I bet.”

Mitchell could see Gideon was in a mood, so he tried to change the subject and hopefully lighten things up a bit. “Joker and I were thinking about getting together with the noobs tonight in the common room and just hang out, try and make them feel welcome. I’ve been reading your reports on them and a few of them sound like they’ll be really good matches. I’m looking forward to getting them on the ranges to see how they fare. Wanna come by and have a beer and chill with us?”

Gideon shoved the last bit of his lunch into his mouth and sat back, chewing it slowly. He really didn’t want to hang out with his recruits. He was with them practically every minute of the day and wasn’t sure he wanted to give up his evening off with them. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Mitchell made a noise before flinging a napkin at him. Gideon ignored it. “I dunno Jack, I kind of wanted to be alone tonight, and away from that lot.” Mitchell pulled his puppy dog eyes at him. “Oh come on Gideon, please? It would do you and them some good to get together off duty and without the formality of training. Come on, don’t leave me hanging!”

Gideon sighed a bit, then nodded. He’d do it for Mitchell, and only Mitchell. “Yeah, yeah, ok. Just make sure there’s decent beer stocked.” Gideon checked his wrist watched and sat up. “Break’s over, back to work.” The two of them got up and grabbed their trays and trash and emptied them into the waste can and headed out. They headed down the hallway amiably, Gideon filling in Mitchell on the recruits he felt Mitchell should keep his eye on, and which ones he felt would do well on the range. They stepped into the elevator to head up to the ground level and back to their respective areas and just as the door began to close Gideon saw Shepherd running towards them and asking them to hold the door. Gideon leaned forward and hit the ‘door close’ button quickly, then yelled “oops, wrong button, sorry” as the doors closed and they made their way up.

-**-

Later that night Gideon, Mitchell, Ilona and Joker were all in the common room with the new recruits. Music was playing, beer was being passed around and everyone seemed to be having a good time. Almost everyone. Gideon stood leaning against the wall watching Shepherd tell some unbelievable story about how he single-handedly saved a group of orphans from certain death. He was in full preening mode and he had at least two women hooked to his story. Gideon’s only consolation was the stink eye one of the male recruits was giving him when he thought Shepherd wasn’t looking. Gideon tore his gaze away and saw Mitchell and Joker laughing about something, and then he saw Ilona sidle up next to Gideon, leaning into his arm as a show of friendship.

“Why are you looking so sour tonight Captain? We’re supposed to be having fun.” Gideon noted the distinct lack of a ‘fun’ tone to her words. He just shrugged, his eyes still on Mitchell. “I’d rather be back in my room cleaning my rifle,” he mumbled as he watched Shepherd finish his wild tale and walk over to Mitchell and Joker.

“Jack! How are you? So, when can I get that personal tour from you?” Shepherd clasped Mitchell’s arm and then let it slowly slide down it before releasing him. Gideon almost choked. Since when were these little shits on a first name basis with their trainers and superiors? Mitchell had smiled back at Shepherd and told him he’d take him on the tour tomorrow morning, if he had free time after working with Gideon. Shepherd winked at Mitchell and the fucker “accidentally” brushed Mitchell’s hand as he walked away to probably spin some new wild fantasy to whoever would listen. As he passed Gideon he smirked at him, and Gideon bristled. Mitchell watched as Shepherd walked away, then saw Gideon and gave him a small smile.

“Gideon, whatever your poor bottle of beer did, it doesn’t deserve to be strangled.” Ilona’s words snapped Gideon out of his moment of rage and he looked at her. “What?” He asked confused. When Ilona nodded down to his hands he looked down and saw that he was white-knuckling his beer so hard he was surprised he hadn’t shattered the bottle. Blowing a deep breath out through his nose he threw the bottle into the trash, hard enough to rattle the can, before he stormed out of the room. Mitchell looked up sharply and frowned as his eyes followed Gideon’s flight out of the room.

-*-

Call him snarky, call him childish, Gideon didn’t give a right fuck. But he made damn sure that Elliott had no free time to spare for a personal tour with Mitchell. And really, the man was lucky to still be standing. At every opportunity he would throw out a comment or question that was just this side of being insubordinate, or he would smirk and just generally affect the air of being better than Gideon. Gideon had pushed the recruits hard today, physically and mentally. He could already spot two recruits who would probably drop out within the next day or two. The rest seemed to be up to the challenge. Before dismissing them for the night he had them lined up and was going over their progress, letting them know what they needed to work on the next day.

“And one more thing ladies, I don’t care if you are off duty, but you address everyone here by either last name or rank, understand me? You fucks aren’t on a first name basis with us. Now fuck off and go home.”

With that Gideon left the group and headed back to his office to close out reports and paperwork for the day. He was tired and hungry and just wanted to grab some food before heading home. He shut down his systems and locked his door before heading out towards the elevator to head down to the private quarters and mess hall. He pushed the call button and waited for the elevator to arrive. When it dinged he stepped inside and was happy to see Mitchell, coming down from one of the upper levels.

“Hey Jack, how are you?” Mitchell smiled at him and pushed the button to head down. “Hey Gid, good, how are you? Hey what happened last night?” Before Gideon could say anything, an arm was jammed through the closing doors, forcing them to open.

Gideon just sighed. Of course. Fucking Elliot Shepherd. Shepherd jumped in, big smile on his face. “Hi Ja..Mitchell. Hey ready for that tour?” Shepherd gave a quick glance towards Gideon when he slipped over the name, a subtle smirk on his face, and Gideon just narrowed his eyes at the man. Mitchell smiled at Shepherd and told him he’d take him now. Shepherd grinned and clapped his hands together. “Perfect, I’m really looking forward to having you show me around.” Mitchell looked over at Gideon and could have sworn he heard a low growl coming from him. “Hey Gid, you ok man?” Mitchell asked quietly. Gideon shook his head no, looking down at the floor and as soon as the doors opened he bolted out and high-tailed it to his room, forgetting about going to the mess hall as he could hear Shepherd launch into another one of his “look how fabulous I am” stories with Mitchell.

When he got into his room he slammed his door shut hard enough to rattle it in the jamb.

“Fucking twat!” He yelled. “Can’t believe he’s openly flirting with Mitchell like that, stupid pretty boy with your stupid pretty boy dimples.” Gideon’s anger was mounting and he felt like throwing things around. When it dawned on him that what he really wanted to do was tantamount to throwing a tantrum he forced himself to calm down. After a few minutes of trying to reign his anger and frustration in enough to feel fairly confident he wouldn’t destroy his room, he decided to go beat the shit out of something in the gym.

He headed down the hallways and into the gym and was happy to see it empty but for one man working on the free weights. Gideon decided to use the heavy bag and got himself gloved up and stretched out a bit before settling in to a routine. As he worked out and he felt his anger fading he allowed himself to address his feelings. He’d always had a thing for Mitchell, practically since day one. They were a team all to themselves, always working and hanging out together. They’d been like that for years, ever since Mitchell had been recruited into Atlas. And over those years Gideon had a harder time ignoring the fact that the friendship he had with Mitchell wasn’t quite as much as he’d really like it to be. He wanted more. But as his superior Gideon knew he couldn’t act on it. There was no hard-written rule that forbade it, but it was more like an unwritten rule. He didn’t know of anyone coupled with people under their leadership, and Gideon fought with the choice of whether he tried to pursue something with Jack and risk losing him to a different squad, or keep things the way they were and at least have Jack there with him every day, under his command.

Gideon had been working out for probably close to two hours when he decided he was done. His stomach was growling and he figured he’d grab something from the mess hall and head back to his room. As he got his gloves off and put them away he saw Joker come in and when he caught Joker’s eye he tipped his head up to him as a hello.

“Hey boss, there you are. Dude what’s going on with Mitchell? Or maybe more like, what’s _not_ going on with you and him? Mitchell and Shepherd are in the mess hall and Shepherd is like two steps from full on PDA with Mitchell.” Joker had strode over to Gideon and stood there, hands on his hips and apparently waiting for an answer.

Gideon looked at him, raising an eyebrow. “What are you talking about Joker?”

“What I mean is, are you two not together, not that you really ever were or anything, but that new guy is all over Mitchell, and I hate to say it but Mitchell’s not exactly throwing the dude off or anything. Which I don’t get cuz that Shepherd guy is obnoxious as hell…”

“JOKER.” Joker stopped mid-word and looked at Gideon. “So? What’s the deal boss?”

Gideon sighed, he didn’t really feel like getting into a discussion about Mitchell and Shepherd. But at the same time he figured Joker would just dog his steps until he caved in. “Nothing man, I mean, like you said there’s not really anything between me and Mitchell. Mitchell’s an adult, he’s free to see whoever he wants, even if it’s some obviously puffed up piece of shit wanker like Shepherd.”

Joker sighed, running a hand down his face before he suddenly shot that same hand up and slapped Gideon upside the head. Before Gideon could even react to the sudden slap Joker got in his face.

“Forgive me for speaking bluntly, but are you a FUCKING IDIOT?! I’m so sick of watching you two dance around each other, it’s depressing as hell man! Grow a pair of balls and man up to what you want and go fucking get it! It’s obvious you two like each other, but any time I’ve ever seen Mitchell try to make a move you shoot him down, but then you act like the love-sick puppy who’s just been kicked.”

Gideon stared at Joker in utter shock. Not only for hitting Gideon, but for how he was speaking to him. Not in a ‘how dare you address your captain that way’ manner, but more that he actually got into Gideon’s face and spoke his mind, forcing Gideon to listen. He’d always counted on Joker to tell him how things were, Joker was that kind of guy. He was never one to sugar coat things, but at the same time, true to his nickname, he was a joker. Always clowning around, making everything into a joke. So to see how serious he was right this second was a first.

“Joker, what am I supposed to do? I’m Mitchell’s superior, he’s _under my command_. I don’t know of any other officers who date or sleep with, or whatever, people under their command. It just isn’t done. But I don’t want to lose him either from the squad. What if they transfer him somewhere else?”

Joker looked like he could understand where Gideon was coming from. “But have you asked Mitchell what he wants? And besides, there’s no written rule that forbids any of that, and honestly other than rank you two are equals within the squad. I don’t even consider you his commanding officer, you’re more like squad partners, or co-rulers or something. Shit man. Go tell the man how you feel for fuck’s sake and put the ball in his court, because he’s not going to wait around forever for you to decide what you’re gonna do.”

And with that Joker left the gym. Gideon stood there for several minutes as the shock wore off and he began to consider Joker’s words. Joker was right, at the minimum he should at least tell Mitchell how he really felt and then they could take it from there. It meant running the risk of not only being rejected, but possibly losing Mitchell if he felt like he could no longer be a part of Gideon’s squad. A big part of him really hoped that wasn’t the case, because he wasn’t sure he could continue if that happened. But, it was time to stop being a coward and grow a pair. Feeling a bit more positive, even if suddenly terrified, he headed towards the mess hall.

-*-

Gideon strode in to the mess hall, his steps confident up until the point he spotted Mitchell and _fucking Elliott Shepherd_ sitting at a table talking. Mitchell sat back in his chair but Shepherd had turned his chair sideways partially so that he was looking straight on at Mitchell, leaning towards him, and was that his _fucking hand_ over Mitchell’s?? He felt his steps falter but then quickly thought, ‘fuck this shit’, and strode over. He walked right up to the table, behind Shepherd, who suddenly looked up when he felt the presence at his back.

“Jack, you got a second?” He asked gruffly. Mitchell stood up quickly, dislodging Shepherd’s hand from his, much to the dismay of Shepherd. “Of course Gid, what’s up?” Gideon made a motion with his head, silently telling Mitchell to follow him, then turned and began to head out of the hall. He could hear Mitchell saying something to Shepherd, probably excusing himself and then his boot steps as he followed. They said nothing until they got to Mitchell’s room and when Mitchell opened the door he motioned Gideon in ahead of him. He closed the door behind him and Gideon turned to keep his back to Mitchell for a moment to collect himself.

“Gideon man, what’s going on with you? You’ve been pushing the limits of grumpiness even for you.”

Gideon turned around and while he was facing Mitchell, he kept his gaze on the floor, suddenly feeling the earlier confidence running away like a scared little girl. “I, uh, I don’t like seeing you with Shepherd.”

Mitchell just twitched his head a little bit, almost in like a ‘so what?’ fashion as he crossed his arms over his chest. “Is there a problem with me visiting with the new recruits?”

Gideon rubbed the bridge of his nose, he looked up, but just off to the side of Mitchell, still refusing to make eye contact. “Yeah, no, I mean, no there isn’t.”

“We’ve always made a point of making noobs feel welcome,” Mitchell said, a slight twinge of snark to his comment.

Gideon finally made eye contact and gruffly replied, “Yeah well you don’t have to make Shepherd feel _that_ welcome, mate!”

Mitchell went wide-eyed at that and dropped his hands to his hips. “What the hell is it to you Gideon?” He asked, anger now in his voice. “Why the fuck do you care?”

Gideon’s anger also began to rise and he found his hands going to his hips as well, mirroring Mitchell’s. If Joker had been in the same room at this moment, he’d have been sitting on the couch with a bowl of popcorn watching the two of them like it was a tennis match. Back and forth.

“Why do I care? Why do I care?! Because goddamnit, I don’t want to see you with him! It should be _me_ with you, ok? You fucking happy now?!”

If anything Mitchell looked even angrier. He dropped his hands and moved into Gideon’s face. “You don’t want to see _me_ with _him_ , huh? What. The. Fuck. Are. You. Gonna. Do. About. It.” Each word was punctuated with a poked finger to Gideon’s chest.

Gideon was spitting mad at this point, his eyes glaring so hard at Mitchell it was a miracle they hadn’t popped. “What am I going to do about it you fucker? THIS is what I’ll do about it!” And with that Gideon grabbed Mitchell with a hand around the man’s head before forcefully pulling him towards Gideon and crushing their lips together. The kiss was hard, brutal and continued that way for several moments before both men found themselves softening it and becoming more passionate. Mitchell ran his arms up around Gideon, one around his waist while the other snaked up his chest. Gideon’s free arm had moved up Mitchell’s throat and both hands were now cupping his jaw, thumbs caressing his cheeks. When they finally broke for air they rested their foreheads together, both of them breathing heavy. “God it’s about damn time you made your move Gid,” Mitchell said quietly. Gideon pulled back enough to look into his eyes, his thumbs still making small circles over Mitchell’s cheeks and jawline. He leaned in again, softly this time and drew his lips in to another kiss, then pulled back and rubbed his nose against Mitchell’s.

“I’m sorry Jack. I’ve been eating myself up with this. I’ve wanted this for so damn long, but didn’t think I could because of rank and all that bullshit. Then I wasn’t really sure if you felt the same way, worried that they’d take you off my squad…then that wanker Shepherd showed up with his stupid dimples and his hero stories and the way he flirted with you, Jesus it drove me nuts.”

“Shepherd is annoying as hell. He’s been driving me nuts,” Mitchell said quietly, still nose to nose with Gideon. Gideon looked up at him in shock. “What? It sure didn’t look that way to me. Looked like you two were getting downright cozy.”

Mitchell’s ear began to turn pink and he looked away. “Yeah well, guess I was trying to be nice. Or something.” When his cheeks began to get pink as well Gideon narrowed his eyes. “Fuck mate, you sleep with him or something?”

Mitchell choked on his spit for a second, trying to clear it by coughing. “Oh my god no, I didn’t sleep with him. Just the idea of that makes me squirm.” Gideon raised an eyebrow at him as if to say “uh hunh, so…” Mitchell coughed again then said, “I may have used him. A little bit. You know, to get you to move,” Mitchell waggled his hands between the two of them as he said that.

“So you made puppy eyes at that bastard to make me jealous, so that’d I’d make a move on you?” Gideon asked, incredulous. Mitchell just nodded quickly. “Why you devious little shit. And I don’t suppose the idea for that came from a certain someone named Joker, or was this all your idea?”

Mitchell blushed again, running his fingers over his mouth and through his scruff. “He may have, uh, planted the idea.” But then Mitchell turned heated eyes towards Gideon and repeated his words from earlier. “Like I said, what are you gonna do about it?”

With that Gideon grabbed Mitchell again. “I’m about to show you.” Grabbing Mitchell by the shirt front he hauled him into his chest and kissed him hard, tongues dancing and teeth nipping. Gideon let go of Mitchell’s lips before sucking an earlobe in and nibbling it, wrangling a groan out of Mitchell. He pulled back and grabbed the hem of Mitchell’s t-shirt and rucked it up and over his head, tossing it to the side. He took a moment to enjoy the sight of Mitchell shirtless, running a hand down toned pecs and hard abs. “Fuck, this is better than I thought it would be,” he said quietly. He looked at Mitchell, suddenly nervous. “This is ok, right?”

Mitchell had a slightly dazed look in his eyes but responded quickly. “Yeah it is, and it’s about fucking time.” Gideon found himself being divested of his shirt at Mitchell’s hands and then suddenly Mitchell was at his throat, sucking and nipping where neck met shoulder, running his tongue over his Union Jack tattoo. His hands were tracing up and down Gideon’s back, kneading the muscles. Gideon wound one arm up to cup the back of Mitchell’s head, running his fingers through his longish hair. He let his other arm trail down his back and to his ass, giving it a squeeze. He pulled Mitchell’s head back to him and dove in for another kiss, tongues dancing together as Gideon began to undo Mitchell’s belt, then the button and zipper on his pants. He could feel Mitchell trying to toe off his boots but not making much progress so he broke the kiss long enough to kneel down quickly and unlace them enough for Mitchell to kick them off, and then quickly unlaced his as well, toeing them off as he stood back up. He began to push Mitchell backwards toward the bed as Mitchell began undoing Gideon’s belt and then pulling his pants down and off. When the back of Mitchell’s knees hit the bed Gideon pushed him down then leaned over and pulled Mitchell’s pants off. “Fuck me, you’re gorgeous, you know that?” Mitchell just smirked and grabbed Gideon’s hand and pulled him on top of him. “You’re not so bad looking yourself old man.”

Leaning over Mitchell with his legs straddling one of Mitchell’s, Gideon ran his hand up Mitchell’s cock. It was already hard and standing at attention against his belly and Mitchell hissed in pleasure. “Shit Gid, do that again,” he wheezed. Gideon complied, fingers grabbing under his balls and scraping up and over them and up the shaft, his thumb rubbing over the slit. Mitchell arched up into his hand wanting more. Gideon brought his hand back down, this time grabbing and twisting. He leaned down and began to follow his fingers with his tongue, licking and sucking along the shaft before flattening his tongue and running it over the tip of Mitchell’s cock. Mitchell clenched the sheets in his hands and bucked up with the intense feeling of Gideon’s mouth on him. When he felt the wet heat of his mouth completely engulf him and suck Mitchell let out a loud moan.

Gideon was enjoying himself immensely, and from the sounds Mitchell was making he was quite happy himself. Gideon was trying to pour all of his feelings into his tongue and mouth, trying to tell Mitchell how long he’d dreamed of doing this to him. He hollowed his cheeks and sucked hard while he reached down and began to stroke himself. He wasn’t going to last long, he was afraid to admit. But he tugged hard on his dick as he deep throated Mitchell, pulling another cry out of him. He could feel Mitchell’s balls begin to tighten up and knew he was close as well. He bobbed his head up and down faster in time with his hand, the other hand still stroking his own cock.

“Shit…shit Gideon, I’m gonna come…” Gideon gave him a hard suck and then pulled him deeper before bobbing even faster. He could feel Mitchell tighten up under him like a spring coiled up and ready to pop, mewling noises coming from him that deepened into a long drawn out grunt as Mitchell came, shooting his hot come down Gideon’s throat. Gideon took it all, continuing to suck gently after he finished. He gave himself a harder stroke and knew he had reached his limit as he shot up and with a low cry, handing pumping hard and fast, shot thick ropes of come across Mitchell’s chest. After a few moments he caught his breath and chanced a look at Mitchell. Mitchell had a dazed, but satisfied, look on his face. Gideon leaned in and kissed him gently. “That’s was fucking amazing Gideon,” he breathed. Gideon could only nod his agreement. “God Jack…thank you.” Mitchell just smiled and pulled Gideon down to lay next to him. He grabbed his t-shirt which had hit the nightstand and used it to clean his chest off before snuggling Gideon into him. “Next time I’m on top Captain.” Gideon let out a laugh, kissing Mitchell. “Damn right mate.”

-*-

The next morning Gideon woke to find himself on his side in bed, Mitchell spooned up against his back with one leg in between Gideon’s and an arm snaked around his waist tightly. He could feel Mitchell’s warm breath on the back of his neck and he realized just how content and happy he felt at that moment. A few minutes later there was a knock on the door. Gideon elbowed Mitchell to wake him up. “Get up Jack, someone’s at your door.” Mitchell muffled into his back telling him, “Can you just go see who it is and tell them to screw off? I don’t want to get up.” Gideon snorted and wiggled out of Mitchell’s arms and legs, grabbed his boxers from the floor and put them on, but nothing else.

He went over to the door and opened it to find Elliott Shepherd standing there, chest out, hair just right.

“Hey Jac…oh, wow, uh Captain Gideon, I’m so sorry.” A quick peek to the left to check the room number showed Shepherd he was indeed at Mitchell’s door. With a smug look he turned back to Gideon. “I uh, was looking for Mitchell.”

Gideon knew it was childish, cruel maybe, but he didn’t let it stop him. He could be a dick at times and one of those times was now. He opened the door a bit wider, giving Shepherd enough room to see Mitchell sprawled in bed, half naked and looking disheveled.

“Jack’s still in bed mate. Maybe next time.” And with a smirk Gideon closed the door on _fucking Elliott Shepherd_.

 


	7. In the dog house

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A missed anniversary is a bad thing!

**Ilona** : Well y wouldn’t I be I be upset?? I mean its our 1st anni and u forgot!

**Joker** : OMG I know babe, I said I was sry!

**Ilona** : all u had 2 do was ducking show up!

**Ilona** : *fucking

**Joker** : wut was I supposed 2 do? I had to work and I didn’t no u were cooking!

**Ilona** : but u shud have known what day it was joker

 

**Gideon** : Joker u around mate

**Joker** : uh huh what up boss

**Gideon** : r u and Ilona fighting over text

**Joker** : um maybe. Y?

**Gideon** : cuz shes in a piss ass mood and stabbing her com unit

**Gideon** : she just about ripped my noob to shreds when he said hi 2 her

 

**Joker** : look babe, I said I was sorry. Can I make it up 2 u?

**Ilona** : srsly? How do u make up a missed 1st anni??

 

**Gideon** : omg Mitchell im ready 2 kill Ilona and joker

**Jack** : whats going on?

**Gideon** : fighting about sumthin over text

**Jack** : lol poor joker

**Gideon** : yep thinking jokers in dog house 2nite

**Jack** : what did he do?

**Gideon** : dunno. Ill find out

 

**Joker** : idk I can take u out.

**Ilona** : u kidding? Where the mess hall? We r in middle of desert

**Ilona** : glupaya otgovorka dlya cheloveka 

**Joker** : dufuq that mean?

**Ilona** : look it up mudak 

**Joker** : Ilona I really don’t need this shut right now 

**Joker** : shat 

**Joker** : s h i t  

 

**Gideon** : rofl Ilona is spouting off in Russian now. What ever he did is bad 

**Jack** : oh damn haha 

**Gideon** : this has been going on for almost an hour 

**Jack** : better u than me babe 

**Gideon** : fucker lol

 

**Gideon** : ok yeah joker is dead man

**Jack** : ??

**Gideon** : he forgot their anniversary

**Jack** : isn’t it their first?

**Gideon** : yep

**Jack** : O.o yeah hes dead

 

**Jack** : hey joker u ok man?

**Joker** : (>_<)

**Joker** : ilonas pissed. Missed r anniv

**Jack** : yeah mite wanna steer clear of her for a bit :-(

**Joker** : u kidding, plan on sleeping in next country 2nite

**Jack** : lolsnort

 

**Jack** : hey maybe we can do something for them

**Gideon** : like what

**Jack** : maybe set up a romantic dinner

**Gideon** : for us or them ;-)

**Jack** : them u snot

**Jack** : lol

**Jack** : but if you help me maybe I set something up 4 u

**Gideon** : count me in. will u be naked?

**Jack** : when I set dinner up 4 them?

**Jack** : they prolly wouldn’t appreciate that

**Gideon** : groan. Maybe I wont help then

**Jack** : ah cum on baby don’t be like that

**Gideon** : cum?

**Jack** : *come

**Jack** : stupid autocorrect

**Gideon** : uh huh right

 

**Joker** : oh man she’s only texting me in Russian now

**Joker** : she’s either trying to divorce me or putting a curse on me

**Jack** : lol doubt that

 

**Gideon** : joker man can u apologize or sumthin to Ilona?

**Gideon** : she’s making my recruits nervous.

**Gideon** : shes only talking in Russian

**Joker** : same here boss. Sry

**Joker** : will try to fix it

**Gideon** : I think Jaurez just pissed himself when she yelled at him for being a man

 

_******* Three hours later ******* _

 

**Jack** : ok man room is all set, food is ready. Text Ilona and tell her to go to maintence room 2.

**Gideon** : will do

**Jack** : texting joker now

 

**Gideon** : ok told her to ‘meet me’ there. Shes on her way

**Jack** : perfect. Jokers already there. With flowers

**Gideon** : lets hope it works. Don’t need scared noobs anymore

**Jack** : lol

**Jack** : ok I hear her coming. Gonna move out b4 she sees me.

**Jack** : wanna ‘meet me’ in storage room 7?

**Gideon** : fuck me. On my way!

 

_******* Two hours later ******* _

 

**Joker** : Thnx man :-)

**Jack** : yvw :-)

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> glupaya otgovorka dlya cheloveka = "you sorry excuse for a man
> 
> mudak: asshole
> 
> At least according to Google's translator :-)


	8. First Day of School

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For LouLou2503! :-)

“Duncan! Douglas! You both better get your behinds down here toot-sweet and eat your breakfast or you’ll be late!”

It sounded like a herd of angry buffalo where stampeding around upstairs only to continue down the stairs. Jack turned around just in time to see Duncan decide stairs were for losers as he launched himself from the top step down to the bottom just as his brother made it down, tackling him into a roll.

“Pew pew! You’re dead!” Duncan yelled at his twin.

“Nah unh I had my exo shield up! It bounced off me!” Came the reply.

“Did not!”

“Did too!”

Before it could turn into an all-out fight, as it usually did, Jack walked up to them and grabbed each boy by the back of their shirts.

“All right you two stand down. Time to eat, hurry up before it gets cold.” Jack led them over to their kitchen table where plates full of eggs, bacon and toast waited for them.  Both boys sat down and began to tuck in to their breakfasts, talking around the food in their mouths, one second being the best of friends, the next mortal enemies. They began to argue over who was better, Green Arrow or Hawkeye, and within seconds it turned into a fullscale war.

Douglas, incensed that Duncan would pick Hawkeye over the Green Arrow, picked up a piece of toast and prepared to toss it at his brother. Just as his hand went back and prepared to let it fly another strong hand darted out and grabbed it, then moved it back down to the plate.

“Oi, we do not throw toast at our brothers Douglas. Nor do we stick our tongues out, _Duncan_ ,” Gideon admonished, not even having to look behind him to see said boy’s tongue sticking out. Duncan quickly put his tongue back in while his dad moved around the table and kissed each boy on their head. Gideon then moved on over to the counter where Jack was packing up their lunch boxes. He wrapped his arms around Jack’s waist and leaned his chin on his shoulder.

“So, you ready?” He asked. Jack snorted. “In more ways than one. Although it’ll be weird to not have them in the house all day. But maybe now I can actually get work done,” Jack said with a laugh. He zipped up the lunch box before turning around in Gideon’s arms and threw his arms around Gideon’s neck, then leaned in for a kiss. It would’ve been homey and even kind of romantic had it not been for the duel sounds of fake gagging coming from the table.

“Ugh _gross_ dads!”

Gideon laughed before turning around to his boys.

“Alright you two, you done eating? Yeah? Good, up you go then. Get into the bathroom and brush your teeth. And I do NOT want to see toothpaste on the toilet seat this time, got it?”

The boys ran back upstairs while Gideon walked back into the kitchen and swiped some bacon from the plate. Jack was leaning against the counter eating toast and checking his com unit.

“What’s on tap for today Gid?”

Gideon munched bacon before grabbing a slice of toast left behind by one of the boys. “Eh, usual shite. Train the noobs, fill out reports. Sometimes I miss being out in the field.”

Jack just smiled. It had been hard for Gideon to transition from being out in the field to being strictly behind the scenes. It had come with promotions, he was now a Major, but sometimes he’d missed the action. But it was worth it when it meant being able to have the twin terrors upstairs who were probably right now writing on the mirrors with the toothpaste.

Jack had had an easier time, but part of that was probably due to the last injury he’d received before being pulled off active duty. He’d come close to dying that time and it had taken a while to recover. They’d been trying to route out a terror cell inside a small town that the terrorists had taken over. Sentinel had managed to evacuate most of the town before moving in, but a booby trap had been triggered resulting in several massive explosions. Jack had been caught in one of them and seriously injured. While he’d been recovering Gideon had learned a woman, pregnant with twins, had been caught in it as well. She was full term and when she died from her wounds Sentinel had performed emergency surgery to save the babies. Before they knew it both of them had decided to adopt the babies. That had been almost six years ago.

“What about you?” Gideon asked.

“Mm, I’ve got three consults and two audits to do. Busy day.”

They heard the stampede making its way back down the stairs and two small bodies came flying into the kitchen. “All done!” They yelled. Jack grabbed Duncan while Gideon grabbed Douglas, throwing them up and over their shoulders and each one grabbing a lunch box off the counter.

“Who’s ready for their first day of school?” Jack asked, with a loud “Me!” as his answer. They made their way into the front room where the boys were deposited onto the floor. The boys got their coats and shoes on and when they were ready Gideon stood in front of the door.

“OK boys, time to go over the rules again, right? Rule number one – pants stay on at all times! Rule number two – no bugs, lizards or any other creatures are to be snuck down a girl’s shirt. Rule number three – No discussing our private parts. And rule number four – no sticking crayons up our noses. Do you copy that boys?”

“Sir! Yes! Sir!” The boys mocked saluted before Gideon grinned and opened the door. As Jack walked out Gideon muttered under his breath, “I can only hope they follow at least one of those.”

Jack snorted and smiled as he said, “I fully expect a phone call within the first hour.”

Jack and Gideon stood off to the side as they watched the twins put their lunch boxes in their cubbies and get their name tags and whatnot. They were all settled in and had eagerly said their goodbyes to their dads, not at all uncertain or apprehensive about being away from them. Gideon was leaning against the door jamb watching them and Jack was just behind them.

“Time to go Gid,” he said quietly.

“Yeah ok. Just another minute, I want to make sure they’re ok.” Jack smiled and rubbed Gideon’s neck gently. “Come on old man, its ok. It’s only for a few hours and then they’ll be home.”

“What if they get scared? Or miss us?” Jack forcibly pulled Gideon out of the doorway then wrapped his arm around his shoulders.

“They’ll be ok Gid, I promise. They’re going to have lots of fun.”

Two hours later Jack was sitting in front of his computer, sifting through reports for one of the audits he was doing for Sentinel. His phone rang and he answered it absently.

“Jack Mitchell,” he said.

“Yes I’m their dad, they did _what_?” Jack let out a sigh. He loved his boys. Really.


	9. Halloween Fun

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For the 'Halloween' prompt from LouLou. It's a bit shorter than the others, but hopefully you all like it!

Mitchell and Gideon loved this time of year. This was the one time they could get away with acting like kids, and the beautiful part of it was that they got to do it with actual kids and they got to help them out at the same time. Gideon and his squad were back in the States at their compound just outside of Detroit. The city had been rebuilt over the years thanks to Sentinel and the government stepping in and providing the funds, resources and manpower to do so.

One of Sentinel’s biggest contributions to the city had been a sanctuary for kids who’d been orphaned during the war. They had a safe home, food, medical care, even a school, all inside their compound. Children who’d been left on the streets to die or fend for themselves had been found and brought in to recover. No one was turned away, even older children over the age of 18 were brought in. There were jobs for them so that they could learn skill sets while being able to take advantage of the resources the sanctuary provided.

Twice a year, at Halloween and Christmas, Gideon and his crew would head over to throw parties and spend time with the kids. The team loved it, it was a chance to give back to the community, to do something positive for the kids. This year was no different. Gideon was putting the finishing touches on his Halloween costume. He’d been working on this for months when he had spare time. He’d really gone all out this year. There was one particular little boy who had become enamored with an old tv show that was shown at the sanctuary, and this one character, even though he was a villain, was the kid’s favorite. The kid was obsessed with him, and so this year Gideon recreated the character as a surprise.

As he popped in his red contacts Mitchell walked in, already dressed. “Damn Gideon, that looks amazing! How the hell did you make this?” He was poking at the latex pieces glued to Gideon’s face. “Wow, this in incredible. Jeremy is going to freak when he sees you.” Gideon just smiled, as much as his face would allow anyways. “I hope so mate, I’ve worked on this forever. Ready to go?” Gideon asked as he took in Mitchell’s costume. When Mitchell nodded Gideon popped his fangs in and smacked his teeth at Mitchell jokingly as they walked out.

*-*

The two men walked into the multipurpose room where the party would be held. The kids would be allowed in right before lunch. Joker was already there as well as several other Sentinel and sanctuary people putting the finishing touches on the party. There were Halloween decorations everywhere, ghosts and witches where strung up from the ceiling, carved pumpkins that the kids had created were placed all around, and tables were set up with food. There would be games, story-telling, food and of course candy. As Joker walked towards them, Gideon eyeballed his costume, not quite getting it. Joker wore a pair of denim overalls and it looked like he had stuffed two pillows into his backside, making his butt huge. On his chest was a sign that said, “Have you seen my dog?” When Joker saw Gideon’s face he turned around, and Gideon and Mitchell erupted in laughter. Smushed in between his butt cheeks was the back end of a dog, as if Joker had sat on him.

“Man that’s just wrong,” Mitchell laughed. Joker just grinned as he came over.

“Man check you guys out. You know Mitchell, I think I did this wrong, I should be wearing _that_ costume, just saying.” Joker indicated Mitchell’s “Joker” costume, from the animated Batman series on t.v. He wore the purple suit and green vest and has his face painted up and wore a green wig. When Mitchell let out a pure “joker” cackle the real Joker high-fived him. “Awesome dude!”

When he took in Gideon’s he raised his eyebrows. “Damn, now I know why you spent months on yours. That kid is going to go ape-shit when he sees you, boss,” he smiled warmly at Gideon.

They spent the last hour before the party started finishing up decorations and getting everything all ready to go. When it was finally time to let the kids in Joker went outside to where they were all waiting anxiously. Gideon and Mitchell remained inside with the others. He could hear Joker talking loudly to the kids, telling them the rules, and asking if they were ready, and when there was a loud chorus of “yes!” Joker opened the doors. A mass of kids came rushing in, the excitement palpable. They oohed and awed over the decorations and the food and most ran over to the various games stations. Gideon stood off to the side watching them, enjoying the sight of pleasure on the kids’ faces.

“OH MY GOD IT’S DEUCALION!!” Came a screech, and Gideon immediately looked towards the kid who yelled it, and instantly got into “character”, flashing his teeth and letting out a growl. Jeremy came flying over and launched himself at Gideon, hugging him.

“Oh my god, you look so cool, Mr. Gideon!”

Gideon smiled at the boy, and taking in his costume of pointed ears and mutton cops, decided they needed to both be in character. “That’s ‘Demon Wolf’ to you, Mr. True Alpha.” The boy smiled hugely at the man, unbelieving that he’d dressed up as his favorite character in all of t.v. There was no way he could’ve done it, so he had opted for dressing up as his second favorite character from the show. “That’s right Mr. Alpha of the Alpha’s, I’m the TRUE Alpha and I will beat you!” The boy then fake snarled and pretended to swipe at Gideon with his fake claws, Gideon cowering in fear before falling to the floor in defeat. The two of them began to mess around with each other as Mitchell watched.

“Wow his costume came out great,” Ilona said, stepping up next to Mitchell and handing him a glass of punch. She took in the red contacts and the latex molded pieces on his face, giving him the brow-lines and pointed ears of the werewolf character and the extra hairy sideburns. “And you, you look fantastic!” Mitchell just smiled at her. The Joker had always been his favorite character as a kid. Ilona had dressed as Cleopatra and was totally rocking the head dress and heavy eye makeup.

“And you, my queen, look to die for,” he said cheekily as he clinked glasses with her. They spent a few minutes watching the kids enjoy themselves before heading in to the fray to man their game stations and have fun with the kids, Mitchell cackling and talking like The Joker while helping kids bob for apples. It was a fun day for everyone, filled with laughter, stories, games and lots of candy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So curious if anyone gets the character references from the costumes, and how they are related to Gideon and Mitchell :-)


End file.
